Roundtables

Population Health lessons From Hospitals in the u.S.' Healthiest Counties: 3 CEOs Share Successes can drill down on the utilization of services and identify opportunities to improve healthcare outcomes in the most cost effective manner for the system. Q: What best practices for popula- tion health have you found in your hospital? How do you distribute those best practices to the communi- ty of providers and patients? Ms. Coffey: Not only is Marin County one of the healthiest counties in the country, it is also one of the oldest. One in four adults in the county is 65 or older — higher than the Cali- fornia state average and the nation. We at Kaiser Permanente believe that prevention is for young and older adults alike. We are committed to improving heart health and working to both prevent heart attacks among our members, as well as improve the outcomes for patients admitted with serious heart attacks. Over a 10-year period, our Preventing Heart Attacks and Stroke Everyday efforts have re- sulted in a 24 percent decrease in heart attacks and a 26 percent reduction in stroke mortality, and today, Kai- ser Permanente Northern California members have a 30 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than the general public. Another example: Every Body Walk! is a campaign created by Kaiser Perma- nente to get Americans up and mov- ing. We realize to be effective we have to go beyond saying "you need to walk more, or be more physically active," so our physicians have begun writing walking prescriptions for patients. In turn, we are beginning to connect pa- tients with safe, convenient, affordable community resources that support walking and physical activity. Mr. Gintzig: e more you know about your health, the better equipped you will be to manage your health. Healthcare systems and providers play a crucial role in promoting, providing and educating patients about preven- tive services and screenings and main- taining their health. WakeMed treats more heart patients than any other hospital in North Carolina. rough support programs, like our congestive heart failure program, we are able to work closely with our heart patients and their families to minimize risk for hospitalization and manage their conditions. We established the CHF program in 1999 — a time when follow-up care was an unexplored area. Between 100 and 150 phone calls are made each day as part of the program's follow-up care. And the patients are listening. e percentage of CHF patients returning within 30 days was 14 percent in our latest reporting period, and we've been as low as 10 percent. Additionally, having accurate infor- mation about a patient's primary care provider is necessary for coordinating care across the healthcare continuum. is concept of coordinated care is especially important for successful population health programs, like the WakeMed Key Community Care ACO. Our goal is to provide the best care for patients during an acute epi- sode and return them to their prima- ry care physician for follow-up and preventive care. Ms. Pollard: Within the last year, the hospitalist group for Noyes became the medical providers for the Living- ston County Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a 262-bed facility. Prior to this change, data demonstrated a higher than average readmission rate and possible preventable admissions. Having a single group manage the residents at both sites improves conti- nuity of care, is anticipated to decrease admissions and also decrease length of hospital stay. A Continuum of Care Coalition, which includes represen- tatives from over 30 healthcare and human service agencies, was started this year. e goal of the group is to improve communication, increase awareness among providers of avail- able services and address barriers to health care. n • Arcadia Healthcare Solutions builds advanced provider networks for leading health systems and health plans. e transformation required to achieve a sustainable healthcare enterprise will be driven by those organizations able to maximize the value of their provider networks • Arcadia's analytics and improvement technology platform delivers immediate insight into the care team activity, workflow efficien- cy, and practice performance across the entire provider network. is allows Arcadia's coaches and consultants along with client internal staff to achieve and sustain quality, financial, and operational transformation. • Founded in 2002 and headquartered outside Boston, with offices in New York, Seattle, and Nashville, Arcadia Healthcare Solutions is an innovative and nationally recognized leader in the healthcare technology and services industry. Arcadia has worked with over 10,000 providers in 37 states caring for 12 million patients to thrive in today's fee-for-service environment while performing in an emerging population health, shared-risk, and fee-for-value future.

• Cover