CEO Dr. Jeffrey Le Benger shares what the integrated organization has planned for 2021.
August marked one year since physician-owned Summit Medical Group and urgent care provider CityMD merged into Summit CityMD to offer an integrated delivery model to patients in New York and New Jersey.
In an interview that month with HealthLeaders, Summit CityMD CEO Dr. Jeffrey Le Benger shared how the organization was caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic through widespread testing and integrated care.
Since then, Summity CityMD has continued to care for patients, while planning for growth in 2021.
Le Benger recently spoke with HealthLeaders again to share what the organization has planned for this year in addition to continuing COVID testing, treatment, and administering vaccines.
"We strive to take care of the patient no matter what that issue is," Le Benger said. "We developed a care management model with the right data analytics to get us the best results for that patient population."
In 2020, Summit CityMD added 300 additional providers to the network to care for patients in New York and New Jersey, and Le Benger said the organization plans on adding more.
"We are going to build an integrated model in Manhattan, in the [outer] boroughs, as well as on Long Island and in Westchester [County]," Le Benger said. "We have a plan to, at least in the next year, grow the Long Island marketplace between 100 and 200 providers, as well as the Westchester marketplace."
According to Le Benger, through a "hub and spoke" approach, Summit CityMD will build major hubs in Long Island and Westchester, as well as mini hubs across New York City, including on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and in the Flatiron District.
Summit CiyyMD will also be focusing on expanding their technological capabilities this year.
"We're continuing our growth, as well as continuing our digital transformation into having the best data analytics profile that we can have for managing those populations," Le Benger said.
The organization will be also "moving to fee for value," he noted.
"We are also in the process of bringing out our phone digital app that will be multifunctional for the patients and make it convenient for scheduling virtual, pre-registration, [and filling] pharmaceuticals," Le Benger said. "We have all this coming out probably within the end of the first quarter of 2021."
He continued: "We have done a Herculean effort to help manage COVID throughout this past year and COVID is not going away at least until the third or fourth quarter, if it does go away [this year.] But all the growth that I just stated is with managing COVID throughout at least the first two to three quarters of [this] year."
Ben Leedle, president of Adventist Health's Well-Being Division, shares how the health system strives to improve health and well-being in the community.
Clinical care only makes up 20% of a person's health while the other 80% is attributable to “health behaviors, the physical environment, and socioeconomic conditions," Benjamin Isgur, leader of PwC's Health Research Institute, told HealthLeaders last year.
What happens when a health system makes steps to improve health for "the other 80%?"
In April 2020, Adventist Healthacquired Blue Zones®, an organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of communities across the globe and transforming the health system's approach to caring for the overall health and well-being of the communities it serves.
In October, the West Coast-based health system announced the launch of the organization's new Well-Being Division as a "breakthrough move to promote community well-being." Blue Zones® CEO Ben Leedle was appointed division president.
Blue Zones® was founded in 2008 by Dan Buettner, who partnered with a “multidisciplinary team of scientists, sponsored by National Geographic and the National Institutes of Health” to research "blue zones" or "longevity hotspots" across the globe and identify the lifestyle habits these different zones all had in common, Leedle said in an interview with HealthLeaders.
Leedle added that following Buettner's studies and publication of a National Geographiccover story, he and Buettner met in 2009. A year later, they created the Blue Zone Project, to "set out to try to Blue Zone America” and help create a healthier country.
According to Leedle, the goal was to "help people live that longer, better life, and reverse engineer those principles that [Buettner] discovered into American communities."
Leedle spoke with HealthLeaders about his role as Well-Being Division president and the strategies he looks forward to implementing in addressing the health and well-being of communities across Adventist Health's reach.
Ben Leedle, Blue Zones® CEO, Adventist Health Well-Being Division president (photo courtesy of Adventist Health)
This text has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HL: Why is it important for health systems to focus on community well-being?
Leedle: If you look at the classic world of medicine and the delivery of care, which is so critical as a resource to people in a community, health systems have not aimed or been fully accountable to addressing what I think of as the "real beast," which is our environment.
We are where we live and spend our time; there's a real connection. If health systems are held accountable for highest quality of care, they must pay attention to where their patient population is coming from. It affects the outcomes.
HL:What was the strategy behind Adventist Health acquiring Blue Zones® and creating the Well-Being Division?
Leedle: If you had asked me 15 years ago if this type of work would be nested inside of a healthcare provider organization, I might have been skeptical about it. But Adventist Health is unique on a couple levels.
Its heritage and its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church takes this idea of well-being all the way back to its roots of establishing sanitariums in the 1840s. Out of those sanitariums became hospitals, and hospitals became providers. The leadership at Adventist Health [created] its mission: 'Our job is living God's love by inspiring health, wholeness, and hope.'
We have an obligation to do that outside the services that make up our core care company. We need to begin to create capabilities that help address the needs of all people in the communities in which we serve. Adventist Health identified that they needed a new source to be able to do that work and Blue Zones® was a perfect fit.
As a non-profit, there's a requirement in the Affordable Care Act for [Adventist Health] to put part of its economic stream into these communities. We want to do it in a way that stays accountable to the core healthcare that we're delivering.
We're at the beginning of building out what's called the Well-Being Division. It's an early effort, but it's exciting because in addition to Blue Zones®, we will add other assets and capabilities that allow us to help on three levels of well-being:
[Helping] consumers engage and drive more well-being in their life. That can be self-directed with all the resources support they need in these communities.
Helping organizations, which is about place-based change. If you think about the influences on our health and well-being, the two big levers are who we spend our time with and where we spend our time. A good portion of this is intended to be working with those places to create change.
[Helping Communities.] We know that there's a big influence in terms of where you shop for food, where you eat, where you might practice faith, and where you might recreate and spend your time outside your home.
The Well-Being Division has the calling to see a time when everyone, everywhere, has access to higher well-being and well-being support. Our value is to try better performance for individuals, organizations, communities, and add more good years into the equation for all three of those.
HL:How has the pandemic affected the creation of the Well-Being Division?
Leedle: The methods by which we typically would engage organizations and communities [are] grassroots; a lot of convening in groups bigger than 10. We must credibly leverage our experts, which historically was done by people descending upon a community and spending time with local expertise and building plans. Their assessment processes required hands and eyes on the community.
This is such a fundamental analog-type model, and what we discovered by necessity is that innovation gets diffused quite rapidly when it's a requirement. [Also,] we re-engineered all our workflows to be done virtually. I don't think that we ever can 100% replace the idea that this type of work has its physical presence, but it's clear that we've been able to enable and advance this work during this time.
We found key decisions are happening locally around this pandemic [through] mayors, town councils, county councils, local business leaders, and healthcare organizations. What we're finding is an influx of demand for our help, because people look at the Blue Zone model and they see that this is a pathway for them.
We've come up with four parts as to why we're seeing increased demand on this idea:
All those leaders need [to respond] and the response needs to be fulsome and long-term.
Every one of these communities is aching for economic recovery, to return to the vitality that they might have previously enjoyed.
This pandemic has shown us that the poor health collectively of our nation has been an amplifier of the virus. COVID-19 lives well in America because it has attacked the more vulnerable.
[We need to return] to a new degree of readiness; to not be caught off guard like we've been. Response, recovery, resiliency, and readiness are part of the Blue Zone Project. At a time where many might have projected that our pipeline for development would be shrinking, it's growing.
HL: How will you lead the Well-Being Division to fulfill Adventist Health's focus on community health and well-being?
Leedle: I'm in my fourth decade of trying to create solutions that help create healthier people, who perform better and cost less.
My first decade was spent being part of the delivery of diabetes care as a certified diabetes educator. The second decade was spent trying to translate what we know in diabetes care to create new models for broader impact. That work later would be referred to as disease management. The third decade was spent looking at how to model population health and to deliver on this idea of well-being.
In this fourth decade there is an opportunity to take all those learnings, [and] design and create the next generation of expression of this work for population health.
The way we create value from the work that we do with this division will be an accountable care model. It's wonderful because the opportunity we have will be to use the footprint of Adventist Health, with communities up and down the West Coast and even a location out in Hawaii, [and] be the frontline implementers of these new capabilities.
I'm not aware of this type of incubator at this size and the dimension of Adventist Health's footprint. [The hope is to] then rapidly share in a way that the rest of the world can learn what we're learning, invite them into that equation, and export capabilities out to them.
Medical practices, which make up 40% of the overall U.S. healthcare system, will need to focus on several initiatives, including addressing staff needs, utilizing technology, and the measurement of key metrics.
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released a report Monday afternoon identifying the "biggest lessons and priorities for medical practices in 2021."
Medical practices, which make up 40% of the overall U.S. healthcare system, faced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much like the rest of the healthcare system. In December, MGMA released the Stat 2020 Year in Review, which outlined the hardships and lessons learned during the year of COVID.
Looking forward, medical practices will need to focus on several initiatives, including addressing staff needs, utilizing technology, and the measurement of key metrics.
"While 2020 presented unparalleled challenges, the historic year was pivotal in shaping our industry’s future, accelerating us to address and find solutions to problems we have seen and felt for decades," Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACMPE, president and CEO of MGMA, said in a statement. "In this new year, medical practices will continue to be agile and innovative, and MGMA will do all we can to support and provide the necessary resources to help them recover to pre-pandemic levels."
MGMA identified the following as priorities medical practices should take into consideration for 2021.
ADDRESSING STAFF NEEDS
According to MGMA, during the pandemic, 40% of medical practices reported staff shortages and more than half indicated that they addressed their staff's mental health. In 2021, managing both staff shortages and staff mental health will continue to be a priority.
Promoting staff morale will be "instrumental" to organizational success as well. MGMA suggested restoring bonuses to boost morale in the absence of in-person gatherings.
Due to "fewer nonclinical staff members in a facility," leaders may need to access the practice's space needs for 2021. MGMA found only 12% of medical practices are planning to move to a smaller space in the coming months and noted that leaders can consider "repurposing office space” or “finding a better fit" for their needs.
UTILIZING TECHNOLOGY
One of the biggest technology booms during the pandemic was the utilization of telemedicine, and which will continue to "play a vital role" in practices. MGMA reports 97% of practices have expanded their telehealth services.
Other health technologies, such as remote patient monitoring (RPM) may be utilized in the upcoming year. While MGMA found only 21% of practices are currently offering RPM, the integration of RPM may increase in 2021.
MEASURING KEY METRICS
MGMA reported one-third of practice leaders are changing the way they measure key metrics. Measurements in data have shifted from months to weeks to "monitor for drops in revenue" and to help with updated forecasting.
These data measurements will continue in 2021 to give an accurate representation of the practices’ key metrics.
Megan Callahan shares the rideshare organization's role in healthcare during the pandemic and what it hopes to accomplish in the upcoming year.
Despite the effects of the ongoing pandemic, San Francisco-based ridesharing company Lyft is continuing to innovate in the healthcare sector.
A primary healthcare strategy for Lyft has been offering rides to patients and frontline workers as well as ensuring customers' access to the COVID-19 vaccine and doctors' appointments.
Megan Callahan, vice president of healthcare at Lyft, spoke with HealthLeaders about how the pandemic affected Lyft's healthcare business model and what initiatives the rideshare organization has lined up for 2021.
Additionally, Callahan shared her 2021 predictions for healthcare, which include:
“Rising consequences due to delayed care,” affecting both in health outcomes and higher healthcare costs.
A steady increase of in-home healthcare that will lead to "a greater demand for delivery services, as people continue to be concerned about exposure in skilled nursing and other healthcare facilities."
Vaccine distribution to vulnerable populations will require "an industry-wide, coordinated effort to administer a COVID-19 vaccine to communities."
Social determinants of health (SDoH) will migrate from “aspirational to operational,” adding that improved cross-industry collaborations become mandatory.
SDoH will be measurable in 2021, as “increased call-to-actions for a standardized approach continue to emerge across the healthcare sector."
Pivoting during the pandemic
As hospitals and health systems saw a decrease in patients utilizing services at the beginning of the pandemic, Lyft also experienced a drop in requests for rides for medical care.
"I would say that during late spring and early summer there was a drop off in people seeking medical care in general, which is a big challenge, because the services that they're avoiding are not elective. These are important surgeries, screenings, etc.," Callahan said. "I think that will come roaring back with a vengeance, because people can only put things off for so long."
During this time, the rideshare organization "pivoted" their focus to meeting the needs of customers in other ways, Callahan said.
"This involved delivering food and supplies to customers, especially to vulnerable populations, who needed to stay home," she said. "We [also] pivoted quickly in April to launch our Essential Deliveries program. We just looked at our numbers, and to date, we've done over 2 million deliveries of food for organizations.”
Lyft also partnered with Amerigroup out of Tennessee and the Second Harvest Food Bank to get food deliveries out. According to Callahan, this an example of how “payers, providers, etc. are trying to pivot to get people help in their homes.”
Notably, Lyft provided rides to healthcare workers to ensure "they could get in to do the job that we all desperately needed them to do," Callahan said. She estimated that the company provided 200,000 rides to frontline staffers during 2020 to get them to their facilities or their sites of care.
2021 INITIATIVES
Forward looking, Lyft has several healthcare initiatives lined up for 2021.
"I am excited about our roadmap," Callahan said. "We have a lot of important initiatives that are going to be coming out."
Vaccine distribution
Concerning vaccine access and distribution, Callahan said that Lyft will be working with its partners to figure out how to get “as many people as possible to get their vaccine.”
"It's a two-dose vaccine, and we want to make sure that transportation barriers are not an issue for either dose,” she said. "We're working with our partners to understand who might be at risk and unable to get to the vaccine, and how we can help."
In 2020, the organization launched Lyft for Epic, where rideshare appointments can be made at the same time that medical appointments are made through the Epic EHR system.
"We will continue to expand that program and given the focus on vaccines and the fact that our Lyft for Epic integration is directly in the patient record, when someone is scheduling an appointment, you could schedule their ride right from the Epic system," Callahan said.
The partnership will also work to ensure customers can get to their elective surgeries, screenings, and in-person appointments through Lyft rides, according to Callahan.
Healthcare policy
As with other ridesharing companies and nontraditional players in the healthcare space, Lyft will also be engaged on policy this year.
"We work a lot in Medicaid, given that non-emergency medical transportation is a covered benefit under Medicaid; we do a lot in Medicare Advantage as well. And given that we will have a new president and a new administration, we will be focused on engaging from a public policy perspective to ensure that that [benefits are] protected for vulnerable populations," Callahan said. "[We'll be] watching carefully as states deal with increased enrollment in Medicaid, which we've seen, and continue to expect, as employment increases."
Home healthcare increased during the pandemic, and Lyft has looked at how they can support customers and medical staff in that space.
According to Callahan, the organization is looking at how they can "provide logistical support for how to get supplies, technology, caregivers, other items, that people need in their homes," and "ensure that those can be deployed in a safe way into a home environment.”
Promoting SDoH
Another strong focus for healthcare for 2021 is SDoH, a topic Lyft is addressing through several ongoing projects.
"We announced [in 2020] that we were sponsoring the Gravity Project," Callahan said. The Gravity Project recommends creating a national standard around entering SDoH data into patients' EHRs.
"I do think that will you'll start to see some news coming out around how we're going to code for social determinants of health, and how we can ensure through various pilots that that initiative takes off and gets scaled," Callahan said. "[We're] trying to ensure that Lyft is doing its part to make sure that we can codify and have a standards-based way of dealing with social determinants of health."
AHA CEO Richard Pollack details the importance of having a strong vaccine plan and "clear leadership and direction" from the Biden administration to keep COVID-19 problems at bay.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) urged President-elect Biden to "provide strong federal leadership on COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration" in a letter released Thursday night.
Richard Pollack, president and CEO of the AHA, asked Biden to include among his top priorities ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
"As a first step, we want to work with you in expediting the administration of COVID-19 vaccines throughout the nation," the letter read.
In mid-December, the FDA issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, a move which created hope through the healthcare sector.
"To turn that hope into reality, we urge your administration to provide strong federal leadership of the vaccine distribution and administration process," the letter read. "This effort must be large and multifaceted, and it will require exceptional leadership and coordination to ensure none of the vaccine is wasted."
Currently, administration of two COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna has been frought with logistical challenges and described as a "nightmare."
Some hospitals have complained about not receiving any doses, while in other areas of the country, doses are expiring or being wasted. At the end of December, 500 vaccine doses were even destroyed by a pharmacist in Wisconsin.
"During the past week, you have announced plans to release large quantities of vaccines, as well as your intention to urge the states to abandon the previous tiering system and move to vaccinating individuals age 65 or older and individuals who have co-morbidities that put them at increased risk from COVID-19. We share your sense of urgency and applaud your decision to simplify the task by eliminating some of the tiering and by making more vaccines readily available," the letter read.
"However, as we wrote in a Jan. 6 letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, we believe many additional actions will be needed to enable the full scale vaccination effort that will be necessary to achieve our shared goal of herd immunity in the next few months."
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020 to January 14, 2021, the U.S. has had over 22.9 million cases and over 380,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of January 14, over 30.6 million vaccine doses have been distributed, while 11.1 million doses have been administered, according to the CDC.
"Without clear leadership and direction from your administration, these problems will inevitably worsen as the number of people seeking to be vaccinated grows exponentially," the letter said.
Ochsner Health CEO Warner Thomas and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Leonardo Seoane share details around the strategic plan and the role Ochsner will play in "tackling health equity."
In recent years, Louisiana has struggled as one of the nation's unhealthiest states, placing 49th in 2019 and 2020 by America's Health Rankings.
Ochsner Health, a Louisiana-based nonprofit academic health system consisting of 40 hospitals, along with government officials, and state and local leaders, announced last November the launch of a 10-year project to “enhance healthcare access, improve health equity and health outcomes" for the Pelican State.
In the first five years of implementation, $100 million will be invested to open 15 community health centers across the state, create a center of health equity in partnership with Xavier University of New Orleans, and invest into multiple scholars' programs to keep clinical workers in-state post-graduation.
HealthLeaders spoke with Ochsner President and CEO Warner Thomas and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Leonardo Seoane, where they shared details around the strategic plan and the role Ochsner will play in its implementation.
According to Thomas, the initial idea for this project came from Ochsner's board of directors at the end of 2019. Going into the next decade, they wanted to figure out what Ochsner should be focused on in the long-term.
"The board challenged management and our physician leaders to put together a vision of how we can make Louisiana a healthier state," Thomas said.
In the process, the organization realized that it would need to partner with other organizations to make that a reality.
"Ochsner cannot do it alone, even though we're the largest provider in the state of Louisiana. We have to do it with other partners, other federally qualified health centers, other providers systems, other government agencies, and the public health infrastructure—we all have to work together," Thomas said.
He added, "It's a first step to make a broader commitment of improving access."
A partnership which will play a pivotal role in the vision is Ochsner's ongoing partnership with Xavier University of New Orleans.
"Ochsner and Xavier have been working together for a long time, dating back to the '80s when we partnered around the pharmacy school at Xavier," Seoane said.
"Most recently, Ochsner and Xavier teamed together to develop a physician assistant [program] which doubles the number of physician assistants [graduating and entering the workforce] in the state of Louisiana," Seoane said.
Seoane also said the university has a strong background in health equity.
"Xavier has a distinction of placing more African Americans into medical school than any other university [in Louisiana]," he said. "We see this partner to be more than just focusing on the clinical side. It also [helps create] a pipeline to increase the diversity of all providers. There's growing data that when providers reflect the communities they serve, there's better care."
"Health equity is a very complex and complicated subject and topic," he went on. "Part of our partnership with Xavier is we're going to develop a research center to look at health equity."
Ochsner also has a strong background in research in health equity. Through the Center for Outcomes and Health Services Research, the health system focuses on the improvement of "clinical practices and the health and well-being" of the community.
He also added, "We're excited about tackling health equity, and we understand that to improve the overall health of Louisiana, we have to improve health equity."
Ochsner identified communities throughout the state where there are healthcare access challenges, or where there are "a high incidence of ER visits that are targeted towards conditions that can be taken care of in a primary care or a community health center setting," Thomas said. In identifying these needs, the hope is that ER utilization will go down and healthcare access will go up.
"We've analyzed ER utilization … and [are] looking for places where it looks like we have a disproportion amount of folks coming to the ER for conditions that we should, or could, be training in community health centers," Thomas said. "Then we're going to those areas and building community health centers and creating better access for people in those markets."
He added, "[This] will help us to keep more folks out of our ERs. And with our digital health tools for hypertension management, diabetes management, [we'll] potentially be able to help [more people] manage their chronic diseases in a more effective and efficient fashion."
Ochsner and Xavier community center for health equity
Through the organizations' ongoing partnership, Ochsner and Xavier will focus on creating health equity across the state through creating a strong workforce.
"We're going to do that through advocacy health careers. That includes diversity of healthcare providers, and that includes going into neighborhoods where we can do training," Seoane said. "We need medical assistants; we need medical technologists. As a large healthcare system, we need qualified employees to help care for our citizens, and so being able to go and offer an opportunity for people to get employment is going to be a part of this."
"There's also community partnership, and we cannot improve community health unless it's us with communities working together to improve health."
Through the community center for health equity, the organizations will focus on five key pillars:
Research
Population health
Healthcare careers
Community engagement
Advocacy
Ochsner scholars' program
Ochsner will also be rolling out a scholars' program this year to staff its primary care and behavioral health operations across the state.
"Data shows that states that have more primary care physicians per capita have better health maintenance. Louisiana, as you would expect, has one of the lowest amounts of primary care doctors per capita. The idea is to promote health careers in primary care," Seoane said. "The other area where we acutely feel shortages is in psychiatry. Behavioral health is a huge issue, and post-COVID is going to [make it] larger."
Students of partnered medical schools, including Louisiana State University Shreveport and The University of Queensland in Australia, can get tuition reimbursement "in return for a five-year commitment to practice primary care or psychiatry at Ochsner," Seoane said.
Additionally, Ochsner is developing a nursing and allied health scholars' program with Chamberlain University and Loyola University, to "increase the amount of nurses committed to staying in the state of Louisiana," Seoane said.
Ochsner has 40 hospitals and over 100 health centers across the state and sees the 10-year strategic vision as part of the organization's DNA.
According to Thomas, Ochsner can't solve Louisiana’s healthcare problems on its own but said that the organization can “bring the table together” to address some of these outstanding issues.
"We owe it to the communities that we serve, and to the state, to be a catalyst to improve the health of the region," Thomas said. "We're going through this pandemic. We see challenges in the health status of the people who live around us. And we really felt that we have the opportunity."
Seoane grew up in Louisiana and said he has experienced these same challenges throughout the state.
"My entire medical career has been here at Ochsner," he said. "It's in our DNA to address something like this."
He added, "We understand it takes population health to do these things, and we've been leading in that area for the last 10 years or so."
Thomas said he hopes that more organizations will join in on the efforts in-state, and across the country.
"I'm hopeful that other health systems and other entities will join together with us to lift up our state and to lift up our communities," he said. "I think if we had everyone focus on these types of efforts, nationally, we could improve the health of our country."
"It's a big initiative, it's a big investment, and it's going to be challenging. But at the same time, we want to be that catalyst for change, and we're optimistic that we can make a difference over the next decade," Thomas said.
Thomas' advice for health systems who want to implement this type of vision strategy is to start by looking at the data available to them.
"You have to start with understanding what are the drivers of the health status of your population," he said. "But then you have to be willing to take some chances; you have to be willing to fail. And you must be willing to put yourself out there and put a stake in the ground.
"That's what we've done," he added, "And we'll see over the coming years how we do against that challenge."
Angela L. Talton joined the organization's executive leadership on January 11.
Angela L. Talton began her role as the first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer at City of Hope, a California-based cancer treatment and research organization, earlier this week.
Talton now serves as senior vice president and chief DEI officer to "lead the development of a new vision and strategy to advance diversity, equity and inclusion at the independent biomedical research and treatment center," according to a City of Hope press release announcing her hire last week.
Talton has a breadth of experience serving in senior executive roles and leading DEI strategy. In her most recent role, she served as principal of her own consulting firm, ALTalton Consulting, where she advised national clients.
Prior to that, she worked at Nielson for over a decade and she served in senior executive roles including chief diversity officer and senior vice president for global diversity and inclusion.
"At City of Hope, we are committed to deepening our culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion both in the workplace and through our continued efforts to bridge gaps in cancer research, access, treatment and outcomes in diverse populations across our country. Angela is an accomplished, proven leader who will help further our vision," Debra Fields, J.D., executive vice president and chief transformation officer at City of Hope, said in a statement.
City of Hope has joined a growing trend where hospitals and health systems are focusing their efforts on DEI in healthcare and the workforce, as well as creating DEI leadership opportunities in the organizations' C-suite.
The Business Group on Health outlines five trends the healthcare industry will see this year around virtual care, mental health, health equity, healthcare delivery, and the workforce.
The Business Group on Health (the Business Group) unveiled five key healthcare trends to watch in the coming year.
In a press release Tuesday morning, the Business Group identified virtual care, mental health, and health equity as the top trends, along with healthcare delivery and a changing workforce.
"Virtual care will proliferate, companies will increasingly focus on employee mental health and emotional well-being, and the health care ecosystem will examine and address issues of health equity," Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of the Business Group, said in a statement.
Below are specific details around the five trends to watch this year, all of which were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Business Group.
1. "The proliferation of virtual care:" Virtual care, which gained popularity and "exploded" in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue to see growth in the next year.
According to the Business Group, virtual options will improve and include new features such as "weight management, care management for chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, prenatal care, and musculoskeletal care management/physical therapy.”
In addition, the Business Group stated that more attention will be given to the evaluation of the “quality, outcomes, effectiveness, patient experience and cost of virtual care options and innovations.
2. "A reimagining of healthcare delivery:" Unsurprisingly, the pandemic also affected the way healthcare delivery is operated, including "moving lower acuity care out of the hospital to free up beds for patients with COVID-19 and other serious conditions."
The Business Group stated that this trend will continue, and efforts to change healthcare delivery will increase in 2021 to "drive improvements in quality and value." Additionally, alternate payment and delivery models will see an uptick as well.
3. "A spotlight on mental health and emotional well-being:" A focus on mental health post-pandemic for the workforce started last year due to the pandemic, which will continue in 2021.
The Business Group noted that many employees faced "stress and anxiety, loneliness, addiction, depression and other serious mental illness" during the COVID-19 outbreak. Employers have increased their focus on these areas affecting employees and created novel approaches to take care of the workforce, including Employee Assistant Programs and mental health benefits.
4. "Adapting to the well-being needs of a changing workforce:" While the pandemic has affected the changing workforce, factors such as the economy and expectations from younger workers joining the workforce, have switched the focus to the needs of employees.
According to the Business Group, employers will continue to “demonstrate flexibility and support employee needs through leave, remote work and other benefits" in 2021.
5. "Addressing Gaps in Health Equity:" Health equity and disparities in healthcare became a large focus area during the pandemic.
While healthcare leaders increased their focus on the social determinants of health (SDoH) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) during the pandemic, there will be an even greater focus in 2021.
"The health care ecosystem, including providers, suppliers and payers, will boost efforts to examine and address health equity, while mitigating the harmful effects of social determinants of health," the Business Group stated.
Robert James, JC, MBA, MHA has been promoted to lead the organization's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy.
Pennsylvania-based healthcare organization Highmark Health appointed a new chief diversity and inclusion officer Monday morning.
Robert James, JC, MBA, MHA has been promoted to lead Highmark Health's enterprise-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy.
According to Highmark, in his new role, James will work with Allegheny Health Network's (AHN) Chief Clinical DEI Officer, Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, who joined AHN in September.
James will focus on implementing and leading Highmark Health’s DEI strategy, while Dr. Larkins-Pettigrew will focus on AHN workplace culture.
James joined Highmark Health in 2015 to serve as the organization's supplier diversity director. Previously, he served as CEO of a diversity and inclusion consulting firm. He has served as a practicing lawyer for over 20 years, and "spent several years facilitating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) financings nationally for capital projects through a U.S. Department of Education program," according to the press release.
"As a leader in health care, we are committed to being a diverse and inclusive organization at its core, to closing the health disparity gap, and to actively investing in people, suppliers and communities of color," Larry Kleinman, Highmark Health Chief Human Resources Officer, said in a statement. "Robert’s vast experience and deliberate approach will be invaluable in driving forward a measurable and comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion strategy."
Highmark Health is the parent company of Highmark, Inc., Allegheny Health Network, and HM Health Solutions, and provides health insurance "to more than 5.6 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware," dental insurance, and health products including IT and integrated cloud-based platforms.
Negotiations are underway for CommonSpirit-owned CHI facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota to transfer ownership and join Essentia. The facilities include medical centers, critical access hospitals, CHI Health at Home agencies, associated clinics, and living facilities.
After the due-diligence process, the organizations anticipate that the CHI facilities could join Essentia by the summer.
This announcement comes only a few days after CHI Franciscan, a subsidiary of CommonSpirit, and Virginia Mason finalized a merger agreement.
Leaders from Essentia and CommonSpirit stated that this move aims to increase access to rural healthcare.
"This is an exciting opportunity to extend our passion for excellence in rural health care to additional communities," David C. Herman, MD, CEO of Essentia, said in a statement. "We’re grateful that our shared Benedictine heritage and values form a strong foundation for our ongoing discussions. It would be an honor to carry on the rich tradition of high-quality Catholic health care evident today in these CHI facilities."
"CommonSpirit wants patients in this region to have access to a strong network of rural and tertiary hospitals, primary and specialty care, and telehealth services," Cliff Robertson, MD, senior vice president for CommonSpirit’s Midwest division, said in a statement. "Essentia Health is well-positioned to integrate these facilities into a continuum of care, while carrying on the Catholic heritage and mission of these facilities. We look forward to continuing our conversations."
CommonSpirit formed in February 2019 when Catholic health systems CHI and Dignity Health merged, creating the largest Catholic health system in the country. Headquartered in Chicago, the health system serves patients in 21 states.
Essentia, which is headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, serves patients in facilities across the Gopher State, Wisconsin, and North Dakota.