Introduction
The Center is happy to announce the launch of the new topic toolbox: Population Health. Each toolbox contains a library of newly-created and Center staff-curated content - research findings, expert insights, strategies, tools, and other useful resources.
Population health refers to not only the overall health of a population, but also the distribution of health. Healthcare built environments and community environments can be used to support effective population health management strategies such as establishing patient registries, monitoring cost and clinical metrics, engaging in risk management outreach, communicating with patients, educating patients, and coordinating effectively between care teams and patients.
The Population Health Toolbox Contains:
An Issue Brief and Executive Summary
“Population Health: Equity by Design”, an executive summary and issue brief, outlines the definition and regulatory landscape of population health, the underlying drivers of population health, and design strategies to support health.
Five Interviews
- “Designers Have a Critical Role in Building Healthy Communities”, an interview with David Burney, FAIA, explores strategies designers can use to improve population health, ways healthcare administrators can help improve their patients' overall quality of life, and introduces The Active Design Guidelines.
- “How Population Health is Changing the Delivery of Healthcare”, an interview with Barbara Harvath, RN, outlines the ways population health makes it easier to identify at-risk patients and give them extra support, the built environment shift beyond healthcare facilities and what this means from a design standpoint, and technologies that will facilitate the delivery of healthcare in the home setting.
- “Flexibility and Empathy Are Key to Effective Design for Population Health”, an interview on Population Health with Jamie Huffcut, ASID, LEED AP ID+C, describes how different healthcare organizations are defining population health, ways that healthcare organizations can help create non-clinical spaces to improve population health, and the role of a designer to improve health.
- “Improving Patient Outcomes Takes More Than Medicine”, an interview with Joanna Frank and David Burney, FAIA, relates how a hospital in Brooklyn is looking beyond its walls to influence the health of its community and improve outcomes, how Active Design is playing a part in transforming the ways doctors are thinking about healthcare delivery, and how Active Design may help healthcare providers meet Affordable Care requirements.
- “Exploring the Ways Healthcare Organizations Are Responding to Population Health Challenges”, an interview with Walt Vernon, PE, LEED AP, EDAC, outlines how population health is changing the way healthcare organizations do business, why the boundaries of healthcare increasingly need to extend beyond the built environment into communities, and ways designers and architects can continue to play an integral role in the delivery of healthcare.
Five Project Briefs
- “Public Hospital Embraces Design and Sustainability to Improve Patient and Community Health” explores how Eskenazi Health created an extensive health campus and replacement safety net hospital that incorporated an array of design features to improve efficiency, outcomes, patient satisfaction, and community health.
- “Alaska Health System’s Redesign Incorporates Key Population Health Principles” highlights how Alaska Native-owned Southcentral Foundation created an integrated healthcare delivery model that takes a relationship-based approach to meet customers’ physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.
- “Design Solutions to Improve Healthcare Access and Outcomes - Adelante Healthcare Mesa” explores how Adelante provided a high work efficiency to improve patient access and flow and to provide an excellent patient experience.
- “High Impact Design Solutions to Improve Healthcare Access and Outcomes - Clinica Family Health People's Medical Clinic” outlines how Clinica improved patient access to care, care quality, and care safety.
- “Design Solutions to Improve Healthcare Access and Outcomes - Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley Medical Offices” highlights how Kaiser Permanente increased physical activity, reduced environmental impact, engaged patients, improved access to care, and improved quality and safety through facility design.
Two Design Tools
- "Population Health: A Checklist for An Integrated Approach," this tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with population health principles/goals and how environmental, operational, and people measures can be implemented to achieve said goal.
- "Community Health Center Facility Evaluation Tool," this tool is intended to support both design and post-occupancy evaluation of built projects with respect to population health goals.
Design Strategies
Drawing on the roots of public health, a new focus on population health has become a national mandate driven by financial incentives such as updated insurance models, changes in reimbursement, and long-term savings potential.
Lessons Learned
Compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of population health.
Three Blogs
Related Resources
A list of resources is made of up of articles, books, policies, organizations, and more, related to population health.
Eleven Webinars
- “The Future of Primary Care in the First LEED Platinum Community Health Center”
- “Healthcare Design in Support of the Military Health System’s Transformation to a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Model of Care”
- “Life Indoors—The Design of the Built Environment’s Impact on Health and Wellbeing”
- “Healthcare 2020: The Impact of the Built Environment”
- “Leading Communities to a Healthier Future with The Healthier Hospitals Initiative”
- “The Drive for Healthier Buildings: Implications of the Findings From the Groundbreaking Dodge Data & Analytics Study for Healthcare and Beyond”
- “New Rules for 21st Century Healthcare”
- “Taking the Pulse of Ambulatory Care Environments”
- "Evidence-Based Design in the Rural Healthcare Setting: Does it Matter?"
- “Designing the Future of Integrated Behavioral Health”
- "Supporting Population Health: A Tool for Design"
Three Video Interviews
- “Today's Competition Can Change the Way You Work”, an interview with Gary Collins, AIA, NCARB
- “Connecting to the Community”, an interview with Shannon Kraus, FAIA, FACHA, MBA, NCARB, LEED AP
- "The Impact of Population Health on Architecture," an Interview with Gary Collins, AIA, NCARB
Click here to view Population Health Toolbox resources that are free to all
Click here to view Population Health Toolbox resources available only to Affiliate+ members*
* Want to learn how to become an Affiliate+ member?
Contact Lynn Kenney, lkenney@healthdesign.org