Table 3 Additional Participant Quotations
From: How U.S. children’s hospitals define population health: a qualitative, interview-based study
Theme: Multiple Definitions of Population Health Operative in Children’s Hospitals | |
Hospital | Quotation |
CH1 | “I always have to clarify that I mean population health versus population health management.” |
CH2 | “My concepts of population health are consistent with all children in this geographic area.” |
CH4 | “I think that people don’t have a solid definition of what is population health. Often times people are talking about...they may just be managing their population of asthmatics that are here…” |
CH5 | Population health is “a recognition that outcomes would never come without improvements to quality of life before kids enter hospital doors.” |
CH6 | “So many people define it differently...population health is developing a culture that will improve the overall health of a community...I don’t want to say it’s specifically just the patients...but the community. Improve the health of a community and decrease the health disparities. I would take the term ‘patients’ out of it.” |
CH8 | “We consider financing part of our population health function...as we grow health care plans and grow some of our own risk out there...launching a health plan for Medicaid children, the sickest of the sick...” (referring to health care plans as an example of population health). |
CH9 | “Taking full risk...ownership of the entire medical management of those lives...That’s the only way we’re going to truly change our outcomes.” |
Theme: Support for Population Health among Hospital Administrators | |
CH1 | “We have not done a good job with population health measures...how do you make the case that a program is working and continue funding?” |
CH3 | “We’re going to need…if there is a fundamental recognition that health care is tied to socioeconomic factors…then government as a whole is going to have to drive money into those spaces more than they currently do.” |
CH4 | “I think it’s in an ongoing conversation...so it’s a continuum, right? We sort of, we weren’t there, but we’re making progress.” |
CH5 | “I think most people are coming along...there are definitely pockets of resistance. I joke about my area being an area that financial people hate...we are not the NICU revenue generator. We invest in the community, but certainly aren’t making that money back on the things we are doing in the community. That speaks to the hospital’s commitment to this..our board really integrated this into the strategic plan...really speaks to the majority of people coming along.” |
CH6 | Regarding their hospital mission: “Population health, rather than treating patients, is core to our foundation...I would love for us to add a fourth dimension to our [definition], but it’s falling on deaf ears…What pays off in the long run doesn’t keep the door open.” |
CH7 | “We’re still learning. I know there’s a lot of conversation that occurs in the executive suites when we talk about things like the social determinants of health.” |
CH9 | “I don’t see this ever being fully successful without that executive level commitment.” |