Prevention Institute’s health systems transformation efforts focus on broadening out the definition of the health system to include all the organizations and sectors that contribute to people’s health. The health system in the United States is typically thought of as the network of hospitals, health plans, and community health centers where people receive clinical care. But the system that supports thriving and equitable communities is far broader. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health agencies and the work they do to support community health, safety, and wellbeing were thrust into the spotlight. Community-based organizations also play a crucial role: during the pandemic, they provided food, financial support, eviction protection, ways to maintain social connection, and other basics that communities need in order to be healthy.
PI advocates for improved integration of all the elements of the system, increased financial support to keep the system stable, and changes to aspects of the system that are perpetuating health inequities and racial injustice. We collaborate with health system partners and to redesign and augment the existing system so that it prioritizes improved health outcomes for communities of color, immigrants, communities with low incomes, and other groups that the health system has previously neglected.
Prevention Institute works with partners across the country to advance prevention practice, and engages in legislative, administrative, and regulatory advocacy to support upstream prevention policies and investments that advance health, safety, and equity. Key projects and publications include:
The Intersections Initiative, funded by the St. Joseph Fund and co-designed with Prevention Institute, provides flexible funding and technical assistance to community-based organizations and coalitions exploring the roles community partners can play in upstream prevention.
We have an opportunity to take transformational steps to improve our health system—from one that emphasizes sick care to one that focuses on keeping people healthy in the first place, and addresses inequities in health and safety.
Community members and racial justice advocates are collectively pursuing transformative solutions designed for equity and justice, which requires dismantling and replacing policies, practices, and investment patterns that reinforce structural racism. Prevention Institute is joining this call to action through a body of work to advance a System of Prevention for Racial Justice and Health Equity that supports health, safety, and wellbeing.
This collaborative is developing a COVID-19 policy agenda that takes the need for stable housing, mental health and wellbeing, food security, and equitable enforcement of emergency and public health powers into account.
PI provides technical assistance and policy analysis to this California funders workgroup: Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund, and Well Being Trust. The group is working to articulate a shared vision for community prevention and health equity, identify and support community priorities, and invest in strategies to close gaps in health and safety.
Prevention Institute’s Manal J. Aboelata is working with the Los Angeles County Departments of Public Health and Health Services to develop and implement a plan to reduce COVID-19 transmission—with a focus on health inequities in COVID-19 exposures and outcomes—and invest in community infrastructure.
This initiative recognizes the importance of activities that take place outside of clinic walls in preventing and managing common conditions seen in family medicine. PI’s role will be to support family physicians in addressing social and environmental determinants of health.
Prevention Institute’s Rachel A. Davis served as a member of the CalAIM Population Health and Open Enrollment Workgroup, which met from November 2019 to February 2020. She used this opportunity to advance an understanding of how addressing the social determinants of health can keep all Medi-Cal recipients healthy and achieve health equity.
To improve health for everyone, we must transform community environments at the same time we provide high-quality, well-coordinated medical services. Developed by Prevention Institute in 2011, the Community-Centered Health Homes model shows how healthcare systems can support and engage in community prevention even as they continue to deliver high-quality clinical care. Key products and publications include:
This edition of the original Community-Centered Health Homes (CCHH) paper provides an updated description of the CCHH model based on the experiences of healthcare organizations piloting it, and offers practical strategies for implementation. The paper also includes a tool that healthcare organizations can use to assess what capacities they may need as they embark on efforts to improve community health.
A Community-Centered Health Home (CCHH) is a healthcare organization that acknowledges that factors outside the clinical setting affect patient health outcomes and actively participates in improving them. Watch this short, animated video for an introduction to how the CCHH model enables healthcare organizations to achieve positive changes in the policies, systems, and environments that shape health.
The original Community Centered Health Homes paper, released in 2011, describes the importance of integrating community prevention and clinical care in today’s healthcare environment, and introduces the CCHH model as a strategy for healthcare organizations interested improving community conditions.
Reviews and analyzes learnings from the Community-Centered Health Homes model, including what we've heard from clinics engaged in early testing of the model or that are actively involved in community change.
Community prevention is a valuable strategy for reducing illness and injury in the first place while supporting the Triple Aim of improved population health, lower costs, and improved outcomes. Prevention Institute envisions a transformed health delivery and payment system that advances health and equity through quality community-based prevention practices. Key products and publications include:
The Accountable Community for Health model is emerging as a promising vehicle toward reaching the full potential of the Triple Aim-particularly efforts to improve population health. Accountable Communities for Health: Opportunities and Recommendations, Prevention Institute's report for the state of Vermont, presents research and analysis conducted by Prevention Institute to inform the potential development and application of the Accountable Community for Health (ACH) model.
Disrupting the Pathway explores a primary prevention approach to reduce frequent utilization of high-cost healthcare services and includes model strategies that healthcare organizations and their community partners can collectively implement to improve community conditions that have a role in producing high utilization and subsequent costs.
Published by the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement, Closing the Loop outlines some of the essential elements of sustainable funding mechanisms and argues that we need to “close the loop” by ensuring that when prevention efforts DO save money, substantial portions of that money get plowed back into prevention.
