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Becker’s Hospital Review
Community-focused well-being initiatives are a critical component of the value that hospitals and health systems provide to the populations they serve.
This was the major theme of a roundtable at Becker’s Hospital Review 15th Annual Meeting, facilitated by two Cigna Healthcare leaders – Allison Hofmann, vice president, health systems division, and Catherine Dimou, MD, Midwest market medical executive.
Three key takeaways were:
Community ambassador programs are a great way to support community well-being. Each year, Cigna Healthcare designates 15 team members as community ambassadors, based on projects deemed worthwhile. The company grants these ambassadors a three-month leave of absence and $20,000 to support each project.
One community project focused on nonclinical aspects of pediatric care, such as food security, violence and social determinants of health. “Pediatric care is not just about seeing the doctor and getting vaccinations,” Dr. Dimou said.
A roundtable participant said her institution launched a program to assist children having behavioral issues. In this program, a care team would go to the children’s home instead of sending the child to a hospital. “That way we could get feedback to the school the next day and maintain their education,” she said.
Some well-being initiatives are applicable to broad population segments. Participants shared examples of programs where hospitalists and care managers would go to community walk-in clinics to explain the importance of not missing follow-up care appointments. This type of engagement is crucial to building trust in communities, where trust in the health system is often lacking.
Other wellness outreach programs can be targeted at specific communities. A participant from California — a state with many diverse populations — said his organization has initiated targeted initiatives in different ethnic and age-based communities. Those include a Chinese health initiative focused on prevention and management of diabetes, a South Asian initiative focused on prevention and management of heart disease and a teenage initiative focused on mental health issues.
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