Population/Community Health
By Gene WoodsApril is National Minority Health Month, dedicated to raising awareness about health disparities that continue to affect minority populations鈥揳nd to accelerating health care equity. Nearly 1,500 hospitals and health systems are participating in the AHA鈥檚 #123forEquity Pledge to鈥
How much progress is your hospital making toward ensuring equitable care for all persons in every community served? April is a good time to ask because it鈥檚 National Minority Health Month, dedicated to raising awareness about the health disparities that continue to affect minority populations.
You may not know Rachelle Schultz of Winona, MN鈥攂ut you probably can appreciate the concerns she has for her rural community. Rachelle is the president and CEO of Winona Health in southeast Minnesota with a population of 27,000 residents. With all the many real challenges facing rural America, at a鈥
The word hunger calls to mind thin starving children. But in America today the real picture of undernutrition is different. In some cases, obese children are malnourished because they are consuming the wrong types of food 鈥 foods that are dense in calories, but nutritionally poor.
Hospitals come together to make the "healthy choice the easy choice" in Montana's Yellowstone County
Providers in Billings, Mont., came together more than 20 years ago to collaborate for a healthier community in what the AHA has described as an example of a 鈥渟econd generation鈥 strategy for improving population health.
Health isn鈥檛 created by doctors and nurses, but by friendships and families 鈥 by good air, food, houses, roads and jobs 鈥 by good churches and schools. Because improving health means going beyond hospitals and physicians鈥 offices, the AHA-affiliated Association for Community Health Improvement (鈥
鈥淥f all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.鈥濃 Martin Luther King Jr.Black History Month is the perfect time to ask, 鈥淲hat progress is your hospital making in equity of care? What progress are you making in support of the idea that a person鈥檚 fate in鈥
Hospitals and health systems are on a journey that promises to take them to a place where they can improve the lives of thousands of people all at once, not just the health of one patient at a time 鈥 where their success in addressing the social determinants of health within the communities they鈥
The next generation of community health will serve as the foundation for total population health.
One of the best parts of my job is getting to travel the country and meet the women and men who are leading the way in redefining the 鈥淗鈥 and transforming health care. Rodney Nelson, president and CEO of the Mackinac Straits Health System in St. Ignace, MI, is one of those leaders.