The journey to population health, by definition, is not one a health system can make on its own. It requires redesign of payment models, integration of other parties to address clinical and non-clinical needs before and after a health care episode, changes in care delivery models and the roles and responsibilities of clinicians and others. And that is just a start.
Critical competencies for the path to population health:
Visioning
is critical both to creating the impetus for change and to assure true alignment around the shared goals of those who are engaged. Transformational change will not occur without provocation which can either be borne of crisis or from a compelling vision of the future.
Collaboration
is the skill set and emotional maturity required to engage diverse parties in the design of solutions that not only meet their needs but also attend to the needs of others. The leader must be skillful in building and sustaining a culture of collaboration among parties who have not collaborated historically or, worse yet, have a history that has created distrust.
Design Thinking
is the skill set needed to drive the group beyond incremental change to the level of creativity required for transformational change. This is more than “fixing what is wrong” with the current system. It is designing something wholly new capable of achieving something far beyond the performance limits of the current system.
