Aligning Community Benefit Programs with Population Health Initiatives to Improve the Health of Our Communities

The health care landscape is changing drastically, and the business model of hospitals is changing with it.  To survive these changes and to truly thrive and become a key component of our hospital’s strategy, we must rethink how we approach community benefit programs, focusing on mission and population health initiatives. In this session, health care leaders from the Johns Hopkins Health System will describe how hospitals are using community benefit strategies to respond to new demands of health reform. The session will feature tactics for communicating population and community health strategies to internal hospital executives and the communities surrounding their hospital.

The Johns Hopkins Health System will present how its hospitals and community benefit programming are evolving to support the system’s mission and strategy to meet population health needs. Key questions that we will explore include: How will hospitals ensure that financial constraints do not severely impact the hospital’s mission imperatives?; How will hospitals dedicate community benefit dollars after more Americans have health coverage?; and How will hospitals align community benefit programs with local public health departments, community-based organizations, and other hospitals?

Changes in the health care landscape will alter the socio-demographic composition of our communities. Community benefit programming will continue to be critical to the broader health care system and community health administration. Opportunities exist to align community benefit with these changes in the health care landscape to improve population health needs.