WIHI - A Podcast from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement

A little over 13 years ago, a team of researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that adults in the US receive only about half the care that’s recommended to prevent, treat, and manage some 30 leading causes of illness and death. Has the situation improved? Not nearly enough.

WIHI is pleased to present a Special Edition Podcast, featuring Rishi Manchanda of HealthBegins, discussing why it’s important for health care to “move upstream” to address the social determinants contributing to many patients’ poor health.

Against a backdrop of hundreds of improvements that are being tracked and reported on by thousands of health systems in the US alone, guidance on which measures are most important to the pursuit of better care, better health, and lower cost couldn’t be more timely.

We like to think that robust safety cultures are so common in health care organizations today, everyone is comfortable pointing out missteps and discrepancies to their colleagues and even getting better at bringing them to the attention of their supervisors. Not so fast.

Systems of safety, culture change, reliability, and a continuous learning system. These are not just theoretical concepts; they’re grounded in a lot of keen observations and careful work over many years and may be key to sustaining improvements in safety.

A lot has been said and written over the years about the important role family caregivers play on behalf of loved ones with various health conditions and disabilities. But acknowledgment of the estimated 42 million family caregivers in the US alone hasn’t always translated into needed support.

Are patients and family members feeling more positive about the experiences they’re having in the US health care system? Are they feeling more connected to their care teams? With so much attention being paid to improving patient satisfaction scores, and with patient-centered care so central to just about every health care organization’s strategic goals and mission, you’d think the answer would be a resounding yes.

What do we want from electronic health records? Well, it all depends on who you ask. If you ask health care providers — doctors, nurses, and other practitioners — be prepared: they often have long lists of frustrations with the very tools that promised to make taking care of patients a lot more reliable, safe, and efficient.

What might be possible if health care organizations across the US made a commitment to work to achieve health equity in their communities in dramatically new ways?

For nearly two years, the unprecedented collaboration of change agents across sectors convened by IHI has been changing the world in meaningful ways. Hundreds of communities around the world are working with kids, veterans, and elders on move-the-needle priorities like nutrition, mental health, and equity — the price of admission to 100 Million Healthier Lives.