America’s Essential Hospitals awarded Regional One Health a 2019 Gage Award honorable mention for population health for its ONE Health initiative. ONE Health is a program focusing on improving the health and overall well-being of complex care patients.
“When faced with some of the nation’s most pressing health care challenges, essential hospitals step up,” said America’s Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH. “Their innovative programs to improve quality of care and support their communities lead the way for systemic change.”
Susan Cooper, senior vice president and chief integration officer, accepts a Gage Award honoring Regional One Health’s ONE Health complex care initiative.
The ONE Health program links emergency department super users — often uninsured, medically and socially complex patients — with services inside and outside the walls of the hospital.
ONE Health is grounded in forming authentic, healing relationships by meeting patients where they are and without judgement. The ONE Health team focuses on treating the needs of the person first and improving access to appropriate care.
“Regional One Health’s ONE Health initiative has made remarkable strides in providing hope and healing to some of our community’s most vulnerable residents,” said Reginald Coopwood, MD, president and CEO of Regional One Health. “The economic impact for our system is valuable, but that is not why we do this work. The stories of lives changed that have come out of this work is immeasurable.”
America’s Essential Hospitals recognized Regional One Health for its results in just the first year of this work. ONE Health was able to make great strides in improving health while also avoiding health care costs. Within its first 11 months, the program enrolled 127 patients and:
- Reduced emergency visits by 61 percent
- Reduced inpatient admissions by 71 percent
- Dropped inpatient hospital days by 80 percent
- Reduced hemoglobin A1C levels in 66 percent of enrollees with a diabetes diagnosis
- Achieved successive blood pressure readings lower than 140/90 among enrollees with hypertension
The Gage Award for population health is presented by America’s Essential Hospitals to honor initiatives that positively impact health outcomes and the recipient’s community as a whole.
And, as Dr. Coopwood alluded to, the stories of ONE Health are as impressive as the data.
Susan Cooper, senior vice president and chief integration officer at Regional One Health, tells the story of a man with a genetic condition that impacts his balance. He was in the emergency room with serious burns from falling while cooking in the abandoned home where he was living. By providing a simple $400 genetic test, ONE Health was able to give him a diagnosis and create a path to Social Security, housing, insurance and primary care.
In another case, ONE Health Project Manager Megan Williams met a man in the Regional One Health emergency department and learned he was living in abandoned buildings and suffering from cancer. She was able to get him into cancer treatment and safe senior housing, and secure his benefits from Social Security, disability and early retirement.
The Gage Award, presented to Cooper on June 20 at America’s Essential Hospitals’ annual conference in Miami, serves as recognition of those successes and how they positively impact the community as a whole.
America’s Essential Hospitals represents 300 hospitals committed to caring for the vulnerable and keeping communities healthy. The Gage Awards, named after association founder Larry Gage, honor and share successful and creative member hospital programs that improve patient care and meet community needs. The Gage Award for population health recognizes activities that improve delivery, access or value for specific populations in the recipient’s community and, as a result, have improved health outcomes.