What is population health? Population health is just what it sounds like, it refers to the health and outcomes of a group of individuals rather than one single individual at a given time. There are many factors that influence population health such as education, housing, and poverty. For practitioners, improving population health involves understanding the defined geography and looking beyond just clinical care.
What determines ‘health’? The United States spends $3.8 trillion on healthcare each year. While that number is remarkable, it only makes up about 10 percent of health outcomes. About 60 percent results from our daily behaviors. Those daily choices are what we call ‘social determinants of health.’ Where you live, what type of home you live in, your education level, the school you go to, and the career you have all can be factors to determine the access to exercise (sidewalks and bike trails), how clean your air is, workplace wellness programs, etc.
Both providers and practitioners are aware of just how complex population health is and that there isn’t one magic solution. But the idea is that taking a data-driven approach to proactive, preventative population health management is likely to produce more positive long-term outcomes for patients and through data analytics and population health management, providers can improve patient outcomes, enhance care management, and address social determinants of health.
Using Data to Improve Patient Outcomes
To best serve a group of individuals, providers and physicians must utilize data. Big data can often be used to address population health concerns and assist communities.
In a panel covered by HealthITAnalytics, Bracken Babula, Jefferson Health’s Medical Information Officer, explained how understanding and analyzing patient metrics and risk scores are critical to the data collection process.
“Some of the things that we’re trying to start figuring out how to use are risk scores that might pull a number of different metrics from all over the system. Basics like age, gender, insurance, and more complicated things like certain past medical history and lab values. We can then pull that all into a broader overview of the patient, with the idea being that you can then target your outreach,” Babula said.
Through data analytics, medical professionals can gain insights into patient needs and allocate resources to those who may need them more, improving care management. And by implementing population health management strategies and leveraging data analytics, providers can shift from a ‘one size fits all’ care process to value-based care, which will enhance the patient’s experience, the overall health of communities, and decrease the cost of care.
Addressing Social Determinants Through Data
Provider organizations commonly screen patients for their social determinants of health and then refer patients to community organizations that can help with these challenges. For example, a patient who reports experiencing homelessness could be referred to a shelter. Jefferson Hospital, as mentioned above, did something like this as it relates to COVID. They studied social determinants of health regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital used metrics called the social vulnerability index and the community need index to assess and target where the vaccines should go.
Here at Extract, we believe in producing exceptional software that makes it faster and easier for providers to understand their patients’ needs and challenges in order to produce better health outcomes. Reach out today for more information.
About the Author: Taylor Genter
Taylor is the Marketing Specialist at Extract with experience in data analytics, graphic design, and both digital and social media marketing. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Taylor enjoys analyzing people’s behaviors and attitudes to find out what motivates them, and then curating better ways to communicate with them.