Despite Washington Drama, Pace of Health System Change Accelerates
Change is dominating the state of population health management in 2017.
The nation’s network of 4,862 community hospitals, which includes 2,845 nonprofit hospitals, 983 publicly owned hospitals, and 1,034 for-profit hospitals, is not known for its ability to turn on a dime. Yet as editor Mike Miliard writes in Healthcare IT News, “Change is dominating the state of population health management in 2017.”
What is “population health management?” Healthcare jargon can be thick, but the phrase just means keeping people healthy. And how do you keep people healthy? To use more jargon, you address the “social determinants of health,” a fancy way of saying that health has less to do with doctor’s visits, medicine, and health insurance than you may think—and a lot more to do with addressing barriers that impact your health, such as poverty, environmental hazards, lack of access to healthy food, and a built environment that makes walking and exercise difficult. …