Let's listen to Dr. Holly Oh, a Pediatrician at the Dimock Center in Boston, Massachusetts as she reflects on a memorable patient encounter. As you listen to Dr. Oh, have your notepad handy to record examples of socio-economic issues that can affect a patient's health and characteristics she exhibited that demonstrate that she's a value-based health care provider. When you finish watching the video, take a moment to reflect on these two questions and record your answers on your notepad. One, what is one community resource that's improving health where you live? Two, how would you define population health? I was looking at my schedule and I saw the last patient of the day was a teenager named Anthony and he and I had met before. He was a really friendly, outgoing kid, so I thought, ''Oh great, it'll be nice to see him.'' We got to him, the last patient of the day and I picked up his chart and I noticed that his chief complaint on the chart was cold symptoms and I thought, ''Great'' because that meant it could be a really straightforward easy visit. I could get it done, get going on all my catch-up wok and then hit the road down to New Jersey before the traffic hit. Basically, I went into the room and I just went through a very focused directed questions, did his physical. Everything seemed to be fine, which was great and so I gave them some brief advice and some reassurance and basically had my hand on the door-knob and turned around to him, I was about to say goodbye and I said, ''I hope you have a really great Thanksgiving.'' And he smiled at me with a very earnest smile and he said ''Thanks, Dr. Oh.'' It was looking like we weren't going to have a Thanksgiving, but my mom's food stamps checks came in a little bit early so we are going to have a Thanksgiving this year. I froze, my hand just froze there on the door-knob because I realized that I had almost missed it. I had almost missed this major health issue that would have a whole lot more impact on him and his health and well-being than the cold symptoms that he came in for. I took my hand off the door knob and I sat down. Honestly, it really only took a few more minutes for me to just sit and talk with him and find out really what was going on, what was the status of living at home. Fortunately, because we have the resources in the clinic, able to arrange an emergency referral to the food bank for that day. Then a time for him and his family to come and sit with our social worker next week to talk about income supports and that sort of thing. But I still remember that. That happened many years ago, but it's still very fresh in my mind because it was a wake-up call reminder. That experience beyond the individual interaction that I had with Anthony. It also just reminded me of all the other socio-economic issues that affect a patient and a family. I could have an interaction with Anthony as an individual or even his family in the office, but it also reminds me that perhaps we actually have an obligation as health care providers to think about the other things that we can do for the community. It helps me think beyond just the patient and the family to even think about what are the other resources in the community that we as a health care provider can connect with and develop stronger relationships so that we can provide help to our families on a much broader scale. As a perfect example, we've got resources now in our clinic where we have basically college students coming into the clinic who are our point people now. Basically, if clinical staff identifies a need within just an interaction with a family a need around housing utilities, food, job-training, childcare, we actually have college volunteers that help staff during the time during the clinic. We identify the need, we match the families up with the college volunteers who basically can search databases, help patients come in. It's nice as a health care provider to be able to offer that resource to make it just easier for families to access because a lot of these resources out there, the systems are not very easy to navigate. If we can actually make that easier for families, it empowers the families, it helps them get the resources they need and overall makes their quality of life and their well-being much better. Considering the socio-economic issues that can affect an individual's health that are presented in Dr. Oh's video as well as others that you might have thought about while you watched the video. Identify one community resource that's improving health where you live? Perhaps you identified one of the free or low-cost resources sponsored or offered through city or county health departments, urban or rural community health organizations, faith-based groups, health care provider groups or non-profits and foundations. Or you might have thought of one of these resources, food banks, Meals on Wheels America, mobile mammograms, free medical, dental, and eye clinics, mother's day out programs, wellness programs or transportation services and found yourself thinking of many, many other community organizations or community-based resources. Now let's review how you defined population health. Perhaps you began by thinking about or even looking up the word population. Here's what a dictionary offers. The whole number of people or inhabitants in a country or region. The total of individuals occupying an area or making up a whole. A body of persons or individuals having a quality or characteristic in common, and a group of individual persons, objects, or items from which samples are taken for statistical measurement. Then you may have looked up health. Again, a dictionary points to the condition of being sound in mind, body, and spirit. The general condition of the body. A condition in which someone or something is thriving, and a general condition or state. If you splice these definitions together, population health then is the health of a group of people. However, this concept is more complicated when the term is used in the context of health care. Let's explore more.
