Do you want better community health outcomes?
Today, 76.4% of American adults are managing at least one chronic disease. This statistic increased by 5.6% within the last ten years alone.
Americans are receiving care from multiple doctors and specialists all while being referred to services outside of these facilities. There’s literally no coordination happening. As you can imagine, this disjointed and incomplete system of care leads to poor health outcomes, unnecessary costs, and angry patients.
Community Health Will Continue To Decline With Broken Systems
Patients are fractured everywhere you look:
- Disconnected Providers
- Street-Level Services
- Complex Systems
If we want to improve community health we have to think differently. We have to provide healthcare that combines street-level services with medical and mental healthcare.
Integrated health services offer a solution. These models house interconnected providers to treat not just symptoms, but underlying causes.
Remember…
Up to 80% of health outcomes are dictated by social determinants of health. Why? Because where you live matters more than your genetic makeup when it comes to staying well.
That’s why integrated service models are seeing such great success. Examples like camelbackintegratedhealth.com hold the community healthiest by treating the whole person.
Primary care doctors, behavioral health specialists, and social workers all operate under one roof to ensure patients aren’t slipping through the cracks.
In this article we’ll cover:
- What exactly are integrated health services
- How outdated systems are failing the communities they serve
- Why integrated care is moving the needle on health outcomes
- How you can begin building a more holistic community care system
What Are Integrated Health Services?
Put simply, integrated health services are medical providers that connect with social and mental health services to treat the whole person.
Imagine going to one place to see your doctor, receive wellness coaching, and have your nutritional needs addressed. Then imagine if all of those providers were talking to one another about your care.
That’s what integrated health services provide.
Doctors, nutritionists, health coaches, and social workers all come together under one roof to help patients with more than just their symptoms.
They combine:
- Primary Care
- Behavioral Health
- Social Care
Best of all, these providers actually communicate with one another about their shared patients.
No more telling your story to every new provider that walks into the room.
No more receiving mixed messages about your health because your care team is talking behind each others’ backs.
Care teams that operate together in integrated models help communities achieve better health by ensuring everyone involved is on the same page.
Traditional Healthcare Systems Are Failing Patients
Okay, let’s get real for a minute.
The current healthcare system isn’t working.
Patients see an average of seven different healthcare providers in a given period. Yet not one of those providers can see every other provider’s note.
What happens:
You see your primary care doctor for diabetes. Get sent to a specialist. Need to see a nutritionist. Become depressed and seek out a therapist. Develop a foot problem and make an appointment with a podiatrist.
Suddenly you’ve made five appointments with five different providers who aren’t communicating with each other.
Each provider only takes care of the issue at hand. The endocrinologist doesn’t care about the depression, only that your blood sugar is under control.
But someone should care. Someone should be looking at the patient as a whole and wondering why all these problems are cropping up.
Fragmented care:
- Leads to a system full of holes
- Creates unnecessary cost for patients
- Doesn’t work
And it’s harming community health outcomes.
How Does Integrated Care Lead To Healthier Communities?
As you’ve probably guessed by now, integrated care improves community health outcomes by literally connecting the dots.
Community’s that have embraced integrated service models are seeing incredible improvements.
Preventable hospital admissions, measured by the Prevention Quality Index which scored admissions for “conditions that can and should be treated in settings other than the hospital,” declined from 1,306 per 100,000 individuals in 2019 to 1,040 in 2024.
That means fewer people are being hospitalized for reasons they could’ve avoided if they received comprehensive, connected care.
Not only do integrated health services keep people out of hospitals, but they address the root causes that lead to poor health in the first place.
How? By uniting providers.
When doctors, nutritionists, mental health professionals, and social workers can look at a patient’s file together they can:
- Identify barriers to nutrition like food deserts or financial instability
- See if housing is a concern
- Recognize when transportation is preventing patients from getting the care they need
- Build relationships with patients that encourage them to take control of their health
- Look at mental health as equally important to physical care
Imagine you have a patient that’s diabetic. With traditional care, your doctor will prescribe medicine and ask the patient about diet and exercise.
With an integrated care health service, you dive deeper.
Do they have access to healthy food? Is there somewhere safe for them to exercise? Are they depressed about money troubles and eating poorly because of stress? Do they have to walk miles to find somewhere where they can exercise?
Integrated health services allow doctors to identify the root causes of health problems. Not only will they treat diabetes, but they’ll help patients find resources to overcome the things preventing them from staying healthy.
How To Build Better Community Health Systems
Integrated care sounds great. We know it works. So how do you build it?
Well for starters, we can learn from communities that are already doing it. There are common themes you’ll see in any successful community care model.
They have:
- Care coordinators who ensure patients are following up with providers
- Partnerships with community services to address patients’ needs
- They approach care with the patient’s best interest in mind.
- And they pay attention to data. Community health workers track information about at-risk individuals to reach more people.
But let’s get real…
There’s no magical blueprint we can send you. Every community is different and they’ll all face challenges when building an integrated care system.
Many towns don’t have the funding to hire care coordinators. Doctors are set in their ways and want control. There not enough behavioral health providers to join care teams. And not every community organization wants to work with nurses.
But that doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel. It just means you have to work a little smarter to achieve your goal.
Try starting with a care coordinator on a trial basis. Reach out to local providers and let them know you’re looking for collaboration.
Build integrated care one brick at a time.
Wrapping Up Our Learnings On Integrated Health Services
Patients are sick and tired of going from doctor to doctor without anyone taking care of them as a whole.
Until we can provide integrated care that looks at patients’ health through a holistic lens, community health will never reach its full potential.
Sure we can place Band-Aids over the problem. Give our patients enough vitamins to boost their immune system and call it a day.
Or we can holistically change the way care is provided in communities.
Will it be difficult?
Yes.
Do you need buy-in from every provider in your town?
Of course not.
But if you want to see real, long-lasting changes that will improve your community’s health start looking at care through a whole person lens.
Help patients address not just their medical needs, but social factors that are holding them back from living their healthiest life.
Building integrated health services won’t happen overnight, but we can start laying the foundation today.