Advances in innovation: Health leaders pursue new strategies to keep their communities healthy

The Affordable Care Act provides an opportunity to transform health care delivery in a way that not only increases quality and efficiency but also increases population health and health equity. Because research has shown that environments and behaviors have the greatest sum impact on patient health, effectively integrating community-based prevention into health care delivery is critical to overall efforts to expand coverage, improve quality, and reduce costs.  Recognizing this imperative, visionary health leaders across the country are developing innovative approaches to drive integration and action to improve community environments and overall health outcomes. They are pushing their institutions beyond solely improving the health of individual patients to also taking an active role in strengthening their surrounding communities and directly addressing the conditions that cause illness.  

In this session, three such leaders in health care will describe how their institutions are adopting unique and innovative approaches to community change, including payment system reform, advanced data analysis, partnership building, and policy advocacy.  Prevention Institute will facilitate the panel discussion and will introduce the concept of a community-centered health system that integrates clinical care with community prevention:

• Jim Mangia, Executive Director of St. Johns Well Child and Family Center will discuss how a network of 10 community clinics in south Los Angeles serving more than 160,000 patient visits annually has embarked on a number of pioneering initiatives to address the social and environmental determinants of health--from great success in addressing sub-standard housing conditions to current efforts to create a wellness trust to pay for prevention and community health efforts.
• Robert Kahn, Director of the Community Health Initiative at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will describe how gathering data on the social determinants of health and conducting geographic analysis is allowing the hospital to better serve their patients, prevent injuries and illness in the first place and work with community groups to address and improve community conditions. 
• Wilma Wooten /Nick Macchione will explore San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency’s multi-faceted ten year plan to change the health-related culture, practices and outcomes of the entire county, resulting in a nearly 4% decrease in obesity rates and 64% decrease in heart failure readmissions.

The panelists will each present on their institution’s work, followed by a discussion on their successes, shared learnings and complementary approaches, as well as input on how similar initiatives can be replicated in communities across the country.