Fostering Hope: Collective Impact Initiative Offers Lessons for Healthcare Industry

Driven by increasing needs and tighter funding, nonprofit agencies are formalizing their collaborator networks into collective impact initiatives to improve lives, strengthen communities and reduce the cost of care. This is the first of three articles exploring how one Marion County, Ore., group is approaching community health – and what the healthcare industry can learn from it.

Shared PurposeMichael RohwerJune 13, 2018community, integrated care, collective impact, social determinants of health, outcome-based care, networks, individualized care, collaboration, social services, prevention, Fostering Hope Initiative, case study

Social Determinants of Health: A Case Study

The term “social determinants of health” (SDOH) is inescapable in the healthcare industry. But despite the ubiquity of the term, integrating SDOH into front-line medical care remains largely out of reach.

Shared PurposeMichael RohwerFebruary 16, 2018case study, social determinants of health, ShelterCare, wicked problems, integrated care, social services, health outcomes, outcome-based care, networks, self-organized, affordable care, community, smart networks, collaboration

Network business models will revolutionize community health

Since the 1990s, the cost of medical care has seen the greatest rate of inflation across all sectors, suppressing wages and limiting economic growth. The system is an enormously complicated technical approach to a complex problem. But complicated is not complex, and only complexity can manage complexity; working harder at the old paradigm won’t yield a different outcome. It doesn’t need to be this way.

Smart NetworksMichael RohwerNovember 23, 2017networks, models, complex adaptive system, self-organized, integrated care, collaboration, individualized care, outcome-based care, shared purpose, affordable care, social determinants of health

Putting Social Determinants of Health to work

Social determinants of health (SODH) are widely understood to create illness and impair recovery. It’s time to harness this knowledge and put it to work. We can create a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle where medical care is better and more affordable in a strong, healthy community, and a strong, healthy community can afford better medical care.

CommunityMichael RohwerSeptember 23, 2017social determinants of health, complex adaptive system, affordable care, integrated care, self-organized, collaboration, networks, smart networks, social services

Growing value from Social Determinants of Health

Huge cost and quality improvements are possible by integrating Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) into medical care. Achieving this will be possible when we embrace management methods aligned with the reality of healthcare as a Complex Adaptive System; managing the whole instead of the parts and focusing on individual patients, not populations.

CommunityMichael RohwerSeptember 22, 2017social determinants of health, complex adaptive system, smart networks, integrated care, shared purpose, individualized care, social services, wicked problems, collaboration, networks, self-organized, population health

Preparing to integrate the social determinants of health

We know social determinants of health (SDH) have a major effect on health outcomes and cost. Numerous observational studies of spending patterns show large savings, but few have captured data-driven examples to isolate portable methods for success. The reason is that the medicine and social sciences are miles apart in science, approach, and attitude.

CommunityMichael RohwerAugust 22, 2017social determinants of health, population health, collaboration, complex adaptive system, outcome-based care, community, wicked problems, systems thinking, shared purpose

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