WIHI: Bright Spots for Patients with Complex Needs

Date: March 27, 2014

Featuring:

• John W. Whittington, MD, Lead Faculty, Triple Aim Initiative, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Crispin Kontz, Manager, Support and Clinical Systems, Alberta Health Services (Edmonton, Canada)
• Catherine Craig, MPA, MSW, Independent Consultant, Community Health Transformation, Care Coordination
• Ann Lindsay, MD, Co-Director, Stanford Coordinated Care, Stanford Hospitals and Clinics

When Atul Gawande wrote in The New Yorker about high utilizers of the health care system in Camden, New Jersey – “hot spotters,” he called them – he attached faces and stories to the very real human drama and challenge of meeting the needs of some of the most complex patients among us. Since that article was published in 2011, interventions and initiatives to better support, care for, and partner with populations with costly and life-draining multiple illnesses and problems have grown in number and effectiveness. We touch base with some of the people spearheading this work on this WIHI.
 
Dr. John Whittington and a team here at IHI have been working with close to 140 organizations around the world for several years now on transforming how health care and communities engage with people with complex needs. Dr. Whittington has been relentless in harvesting the learning from this work. He has often collaborated with Catherine Craig, who brings deep experience about raising the health and the expectations of especially disenfranchised communities. Crispin Kontz has some fresh results and progress to share with us from Alberta Health Services in Canada. Dr. Ann Lindsay told us about a truly innovative new clinic she co-directs that’s been designed explicitly for individuals with chronic health problems and illnesses. Care coordination is its middle name. Imagine what we might learn from this model! Imagine, also, what can come from community coalitions, data sharing, co-designing with patients, greater use of community health workers, and more. 
 
In the US, 5% of the population contributes to 50% of all health care costs. Most of us can recite this statistic as though it were immutable. But it need not be. Listen to our four outstanding experts about improving the health and the lives of complex populations.