From www.physiciansnewsnetwork.com
Orange County hospitals are gaining recognition for working hard to creatively and positively impact population health, defined as the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) has a population health initiative with physicians working in the community to innovate in comprehensive care delivery.
“Our efforts have centered, in large part, on building CHOC Children’s Network, a community of primary and specialty care pediatric providers who are dedicated to a new model of care designed to improve outcomes and enhance the patient and family experience.” wrote Mike Weiss, MD, and Shahab Dadjou in a CHOC blog. The two are leading the hospital’s population health initiative and working to develop ambulatory care guidelines for continuity of care and five disease-specific patient registries.
“In addition to the growing CHOC Children’s Network, the organization’s $17.8 million Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation “Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative” population health award is progressing nicely,” continued Dr. Weiss. “CHOC, in partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, has enrolled more than 100% of its targeted physicians (1,453); and collaborated with them to complete innovative practice assessments aimed at identifying opportunities to enhance clinical care, and built six evidence-based clinical care guidelines for common pediatric conditions. These guidelines are being embedded in EMR systems to help guide clinical best practices.”
St. Joseph and Hoag are taking another approach in tackling population health by focusing on preventative healthcare services for business and residential communities with the St. Joseph Hoag Health Wellness Corner in Irvine. A variety of services are offered at the Wellness Corner, including physical examinations, minor illness treatment, telehealth, medical aesthetics, travel medicine and lab services. In addition, patients can find less traditional offerings, including yoga, sleep improvement and personalized weight and fitness management.
“We started with a simple notion: Help people attain a healthy lifestyle by being more available to them. We believe if we do that well, we will have not just healthier individuals, but healthier communities will also be possible,” says Annette Walker, president of strategy for Providence St. Joseph Health and chief executive for St. Joseph Health. “It’s about becoming a true partner in managing people’s health.”
According to St. Joseph, 60% of users saved two or more hours by having preventative healthcare available at the office, and 92% report saving an hour or more of actual work time by visiting the Wellness Corner instead of their primary care physician.
