The roadmap for strengthening health systems through whole-person care
Whole-person care helps top health systems achieve key priorities, including reducing costs, improving patient experience and outcomes, and enhancing clinician wellbeing. During our May 3 webinar, four expert panelists shared how their own organizations are leveraging whole-person care to realize these advantages.
1 The U.S. healthcare system needs a redesign
The U.S. ranks No. 1 in the world for healthcare spending, yet this doesn’t translate into better outcomes. This is because the U.S. healthcare system is primarily designed to address disease and symptom management, which only contributes to 15% to 20% of overall health, said Dr. Wayne Jonas, executive director of Integrative Health Programs for Samueli Foundation. Healthcare today is not addressing behavioral, lifestyle, environmental, social and economic factors that greatly contribute to overall health.
“If a healthcare system wants to actually produce health, it needs to develop systems and approaches that address these other areas,” Dr. Jonas said during the webinar. “That’s what whole-person care is about.”
2 Whole-person care widens the lens
The Veterans Health Administration defines whole-person care as an approach to healthcare that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and wellbeing, and to live life to the fullest, according to Dr. Ben Kligler, executive director of the VHA’s Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation.
“We’re not abandoning evidencebased, disease-oriented care,” he said. “We’re widening the lens.” Whole-person care extends to health factors such as spirituality, relationships, nutrition, personal development, and more. It moves from a patient-centered approach to a people-centered approach, addressing not just “What is the matter?” but also, “What matters to you?”
3 Skilled teams can deliver these modalities at scale
At University of California, Irvine Health, more than 30,000 integrative or whole-health visits are done annually across ambulatory and inpatient sites, according to Dr. Shaista Malik, associate vice chancellor of the College of Health Sciences. About 90% of nearly 2,000 inpatient nurses are trained in integrative, whole-health approaches.
“With this training, the nurses are able to deliver interventions such as mindfulness, acupressure, massage and aromatherapy at the bedside,” said Dr. Malik.
4 Whole-person care drives better outcomes
Through integrative nursing interventions, UC-Irvine Health tracked significant improvements in pain, sleep, anxiety and nausea. The VHA’s flagship sites are seeing similar success. An analysis of about 53,000 veterans with chronic lower back pain showed that those using whole-health approaches had a substantial decrease in downstream utilization of invasive spine procedures over an 18-month period. In its own analysis of whole-person care at systems across the country, Samueli Foundation found several more examples of the model’s transformative impact.
5 For long-term gains, start small
Whole-person care can ultimately reduce the overall cost of care, but in the short-term, it does require investment and accountability. Organizations must demonstrate better patient outcomes, lower costs per patient, improved patient and clinician experience and reduction in disparities, in order to sway payers and reshape healthcare. To get there, any practice or organization should start with small steps, according to Dr. Woolever, president of the Family Medicine Education Consortium. “Doing this work at the ground level – training new family physicians to think about how we incorporate whole person philosophies and practices in patient care – will be the way we change the way we think about practicing medicine in our country,” he said.