Rebecca realized the problems this created when volunteering at Boston Medical Center during her undergraduate years at Harvard University. Working with the permission of Barry Zuckerman, MD, founder of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, she interviewed physicians and nurses about their interactions with patients. Her favorite question: “If you had unlimited resources what would be the one thing you would give your patients?”
“I heard the same story again and again,” she said: Physicians needed help helping patients meet their basic needs.
Health Leads was developed to give clinicians a resource to be able to do this for patients.
Health Leads fills a gap in healthcare delivery that is critical if organizations are to truly be successful in providing population-based and patient-centered care.
Population health, she said, is more than just a buzzword or a way to get paid, but could actually be the “best and most logical way for care to be delivered.”
On patient-centered care, she remarked: “It’s a goal so obvious, it’s embarrassing we have to state it as an aspiration.”
I think she’s right. How will your health system ensure patients’ basic needs, and not just their medical needs, are met?
