Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/840637
ST. JOSEPH'S HEALTH OFFERS A COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF HEALTH SERVICES — FROM HOME-BASED AND COMMUNIT Y- FOCUSED PROGRAMS TO WELL- ESTABLISHED HOSPITAL AND PRIMARY CARE PROGRAMS — TO TRACK PATIENT PROGRESS AND SECURE BET TER OUTCOMES THROUGH A CONTINUUM OF CARE. BY MOVING AWAY from the pay-for-ser- vice model and toward people-centered care, St. Joseph's Hea lth changed the way they approach medicine and took a proactive view of treatment. While the old model relied heavily on inpatient hea lth resources operating at a high cost, the new patient-centered model a llocates resources to lower-cost out- patient ca re ser v ices, tra nsitioning patients more naturally from outpatient to inpatient as needed, tracking hea lth outcomes along the way and ultimately maintaining patient well-being through improved patient engagement. LAYING THE GROUNDWORK For ma ny hospita ls a nd hea lth sys- t e m s , t h e j ou r n e y a w a y f r om t h e pay-for-ser vice model is a slow, cum- bersome undertaking during which top hea lthcare executives are tasked with rebuilding infrastructure, reorganizing tea ms of physicia ns a nd remodeling patient care plans to account for more primary care touch points. Pioneering a vision for population hea lth manage- ment decades before it turned into a hea lth reform movement, St. Joseph's Hea lth made a long-term investment in building a more effective hea lthcare delivery system. St. Joseph's Hea lth started putting a continuum of care model into place in 2012, formalizing and localizing the concept of population hea lth manage- ment and establishing a network of care that functioned efficiently, with safety, qua lity, technolog y and clinician com- petency as the underlying foundation. Within this model, patients are not ca red for in a n episodic fashion, but rather proceed through a continuum of medical care, transitioning seamlessly ST. JOSEPH'S HEALTH: Leveraging the Continuum of Care to Improve Population Health BY K AITLIN GUNTER A St. Joseph's Home Care nurse helps a patient with daily intravenous antibiotics. 0 6 0 6❱❱❱❱❱ C O V E R F E A T U R E