Jeffrey Brenner is a physician in Camden, NJ. He had a brilliant idea after analyzing crime data from the city, which revealed "hot spots" of crime in various parts of the city. The presence of such a trend suggested that the deployment of police around the city to model these patterns of crime found in the data would both reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of the police force. Naturally, he then considered applying the model to health care.
He crunched through some data and found that there were hot spots of sick people in Camden that were not only the sickest but also receiving the worst care. If we took this population out of the hospitals and brought them into specialized clinics that would help them improve their health through lifestyle changes, could we save money systematically while indeed improving the the quality of care that they receive?
Thus far, Brenner's program - and similar programs that have popped up around the country - seems to be achieving what the critics thought was impossible. Granted, they've only been in operation for a year or so, but, down the line, if the results are positive, Brenner may have uncovered a part of the solution to our nation's healthcare crisis.
A few points about his program that stand out to me:
-24-hour emergency hotline (would reduce costs by limiting calls to 911 in non-medical emergencies such as falling over and not being able to get back up)
-health coaches, recruited from backgrounds outside of healthcare
-morning meetings to get all of the staff on the same page about scheduled patients' recurring health problems and the barriers to their well-being
-constant nagging from clinical staff about patients' unhealthy habit: smoking, diet, exercise, etc.
Read the whole article ("The Hot Spotters" by Atul Gawande) HERE.
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