Introduction

The Healthy People 2020 initiative of addressing social determinants of health is a high priority for improving physical fitness and healthy lifestyle choices. Factors such as lifestyle, demographics, and heredity ultimately help to determine quality of life and health for both individuals and communities (HealthyPeople.gov, 2014).

Case Study

Promoting individual and community participation in making positive lifestyle changes will require a multitiered approach. For example, empowering people to exercise and increase physical activity by walking more often is a positive behavioral intervention endorsed by Healthy People 2020. Renewed emphasis on transformation of health care delivery and support of public health promotion programs by addressing lifestyle choices and healthier decision- making are fundamental drivers of social determinants. For example, the national healthcare environment is primed to support health promotion programs through recent legislative efforts that emphasize disease prevention and care coordination. This approach helps public health interventionists to design strategies and programs by promoting change and enhancing decision- making. Ideally, the call-to-action message will be reinforced with robust health education efforts on social media.

Discussion

The future of health care delivery systems will require novel approaches to meet or exceed the Healthy People 2020 initiatives. For example, Healthy People 2020 establishes a set of standards for health systems to strive toward quality outcomes grounded in evidence-based medicine

(EPM). Small- to medium-sized health systems often struggle to implement new care delivery models and evidence-based practices for many reasons, including a lack of external guidelines and monitoring. As a result, clinical care delivery is fragmented at worse and health outcome are inconsistent at best. Thus, clinical care is neither evidence based nor adherent to national quality- based standards.

Conclusion

Health systems with novel models in clinical care delivery are champions of best practices. “An organizational culture that supports and encourages clinical inquiry and welcoming change will lead to improved clinical outcomes” (Hall & Roussel, 2014). The pursuit of the Healthy People 2020 is a worthy goal that can assist future health care delivery systems to develop a modern clinical and administrative infrastructure. Finally, a gap often exists between the skills and knowledge needed for implementation of these types of cutting-edge care delivery models. This type of strategic planning and focus will help reinforce EBM and best-clinical practices for the adoption of quality initiatives such as Healthy People 2020.

Question

1. How can external initiatives such as Healthy People 2020 assist health care delivery systems to implement quality-based measures to improve clinical outcomes? Provide an example with support from the text and five peer-reviewed references.
2. Research previous Healthy People initiatives from 2000 and 2010. Track one of the initiatives and monitor its progress over the 10-year period. Prepare a SWOT analysis and discuss your findings in the context of measuring a quality outcome.
3. Review the website: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-

measures/Determinants-of-Health#social

References

HealthyPeople.gov. (2014, December 25). Determinants of health. Healthy People 2020.

Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-measures/ Determinants-of-Health#social

Hall, H.R., & Roussel, L.A. (2014). Evidence-based practice: An integrative approach to research, administration, and practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Case Study

Shi, L. and Singh, D. A. (2019) Essentials of the U.S. health care system, 5^th Edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.