According to the American Hospital Association (AHA), population health can become the crucial foundation needed to improve the health outcomes within a group of people.
Health Care Facilities in the Community
According to the American Hospital Association (AHA), population health can become the crucial foundation needed to improve the health outcomes within a group of people. Population health focuses upon three correlated stages:
First, it identifies and analyzes the distribution of specific health statuses and outcomes within a specific population.
Then, it identifies and evaluates the factors that cause the current outcomes distribution.
Finally, it identifies and implements the necessary interventions that may modify the factors to improve health outcomes (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2012, 2013).
Population health is unique because it intersects three distinct health care areas: quality and patient safety, care coordination, and prevention. As a health care administrator, you must ensure that you consider each of these areas when managing community health issues and developing initiatives to deal with them. Consider a health care facility in your local community and how it handled a health issue. Did it follow the three stages of population health? If so, did the intervention modify the factors to improve the health outcomes?
For this Discussion, select a local health care facility that is addressing a need within your community. Consider the following questions as you formulate your response.
Why is it important for health care administrators to address population health issues?
How would you find out about the health issues of your community? Consider a variety of sources.
How can the health care administration respond to population health issues?
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 2 Discussion
Shifting Toward Population Health
Health care administrators direct and coordinate medical services in facilities such as hospitals, public health agencies, and managed care organizations (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015). In order to accomplish this directive, health care administrators need to be current on mandates, health initiatives, and population health programs. This requires the exploration of a variety of resources on health initiatives and public health programs.
This week, you have been provided with a small sample of resources that can help inform a health care administrator. Review this week’s Learning Resources to determine the defined groups and outcomes on the international, federal, and state level. For this Discussion, you are not limited to what has been provided. Select one state and one federal initiative. If you live outside of the United States, select a local and a countrywide initiative.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 4 Discussion
Social Determinants of Population Health In Your Community
The health care administrator is often seen as a pillar of the community. Therefore, it is essential that an administrator be knowledgeable about the infrastructure of the community he or she serves. According to the American College of Healthcare Executives’ (ACHE) Code of Ethics, the health care administrator has a responsibility to the community and society to:
Work to identify and meet the health care needs of the community
Work to support access to health care services for all people
Encourage and participate in public dialogue on health care policy issues and advocate solutions that will improve health status and promote quality health care
Apply short- and long-term assessments to management decisions affecting both community and society
Provide prospective patients and others with adequate and accurate information, enabling them to make enlightened decisions regarding services (American College, 2014)
Based on ACHE’s Code of Ethics, health care administrators consider the impact of the social determinants of health on their communities as they plan initiatives, programs, and policies for their targeted population.
For this Discussion, consider your local community. Select one social determinant of health that you believe applies to your local community and discuss how it affects population health.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 5 Discussion
Population Health Determinants in Rural Health Care
My father asserted that there was no better place to bring up a family than in a rural environment…. There’s something about getting up at 5 a.m., feeding the stock and chickens, and milking a couple of cows before breakfast that gives you a lifelong respect for the price of butter and eggs.
—Bill Vaughan (as cited in Sutherland, 2009)
Rural is a way of life for many. The rural population is now close to 3.4 billion around the world (United Nations, 2014). In the United States alone, 60 million people, or 19.3% of the population, live in rural areas (U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.-b). Although the list of social and economic determinants may not change between rural communities and inner cities, the impact upon the populations may have a significant difference. For example, consider that you are a health care administrator in a rural health care facility, and your facility is two hours away from the major referral health care delivery system. How can you ensure that you provide consistent, patient-centered and effective wellness and emergency care?
To prepare for this Discussion, review the Learning Resources in Weeks 4 and 5. Consider how the social and economic determinants may impact the health care facility.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 7 Discussion
Effective Population Health Initiatives
Every year, you may hear more and more about Accountable Care Organizations. Generally referred to as ACOs, these are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers that come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality health care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors (Centers for Medicare, 2015). As a health care administrator, you must ensure that you understand the various types of health care organizations available for your facility, your employees, and your patients.
For this Discussion, you examine Accountable Care Organizations and the programs that are supported by them, as well as best practices used by these programs in the effort to guarantee high-quality care to their Medicare patients.
To prepare for this Discussion, select an Accountable Care Organization and a program that is mapped to that ACO. Evaluate one of the program’s best practices that have been and continue to be effective at promoting population health.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 9 Discussion
Developing Community Partnerships
Collaborating with the community requires the selection of the right partners. However, for a variety of reasons, not all community organizations and/or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) make good partners for health care organizations. For example, there may be concerns about whether the community organizations or NGOs work more efficiently or more effectively (Maltha, 2012).
For this Discussion, consider several community organizations and/or NGOs that may be appropriate options for your Community Needs Assessment. Select one organization that you feel has the potential to add value to your health initiative.
To prepare for this Discussion, select a community organization, NGO, or other informal group of people that you would like to partner with in your Final Project.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 10 Discussion
Best Practices in Global Population Health
When you are evaluating best practices for your health care facility, you may have to think outside of the box. Throughout the course, you have considered options for your local community, rural communities, urban communities, etc. What do you do, however, if you have to make decisions on the national level? You should evaluate the best practices of other countries. For example, Dr. Victor. G. Rodwin (2003) researched the health care systems of France to discover best practices for the United States. He said:
The French health system combines universal coverage with a public–private mix of hospital and ambulatory care and a higher volume of service provision than in the United States. Although the system is far from perfect, its indicators of health status and consumer satisfaction are high; its expenditures, as a share of gross domestic product, are far lower than in the United States; and patients have an extraordinary degree of choice among providers.
As a national health care administrator, you will want to research multiple countries to discover the strengths and weaknesses of universal coverage before proposing a national health initiative. In this Discussion, you research the best practices from other countries dealing with population health care management. Explain what insights you can gain from them and apply those best practices as solutions to your country’s population health issues.
To prepare for this Discussion, select a country other than France that is dealing with population health care management.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 11 Discussion
Final Project Presentations
n teamwork, silence isn’t golden, it’s deadly.
—Mark Sanborn
(as quoted by Gregersen&MacIntyre, 2014)
Health care management requires a team approach. Physicians rely on nurses, allied health professionals, and support staff in order to deliver the best health care possible to patients. Similarly, health care administrators rely on their staff, community, and policymakers to provide the best programs and initiatives to serve their targeted populations. In this last Discussion, your role is to function as a management team member for your colleagues. Review your colleagues’ Community Needs Assessment Summaries, providing constructive feedback for their recommended initiatives.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 2 Assignment
Promoting Health Initiatives
Review the “CDC-TV” media piece from this week’s Learning Resources before beginning this Assignment.
CDC-TV is just one of the innovative ways that the CDC relays health and safety information to the community through Public Service Announcements (PSAs). They also use other valuable tools such as social media, brochures, and press releases to promote their health initiatives and keep the community informed of any pending health crises. This week, you will create promotional materials for one of the health initiatives that you selected in the Discussion.
To prepare for this Assignment, select one of the initiatives you used for your Discussion. Citations and references are not required for this assignment.
The Assignment
For this Assignment, you will produce a PSA, brochure, press release, or other promotional material explaining your selected initiative to a stakeholder group.
Use substantive information and your own words when developing this assignment.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 3 Project
Final Project Data Analysis and Initiative Proposal
Your final assignment for this course (referred to as the Final Project) begins in Week 3 with the completion of a Community Needs Assessment. This project builds by sections during Weeks 3, 6, 8, and 11. It is important that you select a health topic in Week 3 that you will be able to write about at length during the four weeks you are developing your project. This week, you begin your Community Needs Assessment Final Project by completing an analysis of your local community to identify the top health problems.
Community Needs Assessments are used by health care administrators, decision makers, and policy makers to identify health inequities and to ensure that health care resources are maximized for health improvement. A Community Needs Assessment describes the health and welfare of the priority population, identifies the major health risk factors, and the top health problems, and helps to identify the next steps to address these factors.
To prepare for this Assignment
Consider the parameters of your geographic area. This is a population based project; please choose a city or county in your state – or country. You will complete and submit both sections of the Data Collection Worksheet Template provided in this week’s Learning Resources.
The Assignment
Complete Section One of the Data Collection Worksheet Template provided in this week’s Learning Resources. The data you enter on the worksheet should be based on a city or county – plus US data. (International students may choose a region of their country and compare this data to their country’s national data)
Compare your city or county data to the national data in the appropriate column. You will summarize these findings in Section Two.
Complete Section Two. Based on your analysis and identification of top health problems, choose one population health issue and reply to the questions/topics in this section.
Submit the entire worksheet, which includes your data in Section One and responses to the items in Section Two.
This assignment will be 4-5 pages. The information will be used in your Final Project assignments during Weeks 6, 8, and 11.
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 6 Project
Final Project SWOT Analysis
Managers use many tools to assist in decision making. The SWOT analysis is used across industries and can be particularly useful to the health care administrator. It provides administrators with a clear and concise deliverable of the internal and external factors that could affect their initiative by listing and organizing a project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Minnesota Department of Health, n.d.).
For this Assignment, you continue to develop your Community Needs Assessment by preparing a SWOT analysis for the initiative you proposed in Week 3.
To prepare for this Assignment, review your proposed initiative from Week 3.
The Assignment
Develop an 8- to 10-slide PowerPoint SWOT analysis presentation based on your proposed initiative from Week 3. In addition, include detailed speaker notes on each slide or a 2-page executive summary, submitted as a Word document.
Your presentation should include the following:
An analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your proposed population health initiative
An analysis of the role of social and economic determinants in assessing your selected community’s needs
An assessment of the direct and indirect financial consequences for your proposed initiative
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 8 Project
Final Project Program Evaluation
Throughout the past few weeks, you have been working on the many components of your Community Needs Assessment. You identified the top health problems in your community to propose a local health initiative. Then, you conducted a detailed SWOT analysis for your initiative. This week, you propose a pilot program to evaluate your initiative.
The Assignment
For this Assignment, in 4-6 pages design a pilot program and evaluation to address community needs for your Final Project initiative proposal. In your Assignment, be sure to include the following items:
Description of your proposed program that you developed in Weeks 3 and 6
Description of your proposed pilot program
Describe a small scale program that will help to determine the feasibility of your final project
Describe how many participants, staff, volunteers, and organizations will be involved
Description of your proposed evaluation of the pilot program including a tool (Six Sigma, TQM, etc…) to improve the proposed piloted processes
You may also develop a survey, use focus groups, or interviews for the evaluation process
Description of what other health care organizations and/or nongovernmental organizations have done to address your initiative
MMHA6200 Principles of Pop Health
Week 11 Project
Community Needs Assessment
Throughout the course, you have been developing your Community Needs Assessment. For your Final Project, submit the items below. Be sure to incorporate the feedback provided by your Instructors and your colleagues. Also, provide headings that separate and define the different sections of the assignment.
Your Final Project will include the following (10–12 pages)
Introduction
Initiative Proposal
Summarize in paragraph form key relevant information from your Data Analysis (do not submit the worksheets)
SWOT Analysis (Week 6)
Do not submit your Power Point Presentation.
Instead, include a two-page summary of your PowerPoint that identifies the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of your project.
Program Evaluation (Week 8)
Make sure your paper flows without repeating sections
Community Partnerships
Social Change
Explain in 1-2 pages how you would plan to measure social change. For example, would you track the outcomes or the overall process?
Conclusion
References
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