Question

why is it important to think about health outcomes at the individual and group level? how do these differences connect to patterns discussed in others essays in this volume?

Answer 1

Health outcomes are changes in health that result from measures or specific health care investments or interventions.

For most people, thinking about health and health care is a very personal issue. Assuring the health of the public, however, goes beyond focusing on the health status of individuals; it requires a population health approach. America's health status does not match the nation's substantial health investments. The work of assuring the nation's health also faces dramatic change, systemic problems, and challenging societal norms and influences. Given these issues, the committee believes that it is necessary to transform national health policy, which traditionally has been grounded in a concern for personal health services and biomedical research that benefits the individual. Such repositioning will affirm and expand existing commitments to reflect a broader perspective. Approaching health from a population perspective commits the nation to understanding and acting on the full array of factors that affect health.

To best address the social, economic, and cultural environments at national, state, and local levels, the nation's efforts must involve more than just the traditional sectors—the governmental public health agencies and the health care delivery system. As has been outlined in the preceding pages, what is needed is the creation of an effective intersectoral public health system. Furthermore, the efforts of the public health system must be supported by political will—which comes from elected officials who commit resources and influence based on evidence—and by “healthy” public policy—which comes from governmental agencies that consider health effects in developing agriculture, education, commerce, labor, transportation, and foreign policy.

This chapter describes the rationale behind a transformed approach to addressing population health problems. This approach identifies key determinants of the nation's health and presents evidence for their consideration in developing effective national strategies to assure population health and support the development of a public health system that blends the strengths and resources of diverse sectors and partners (IOM, 1997).

As the nation continues to work out the details of making health care services more widely available to all, issues of population health become all the more important. This is of particular concern to respond to crisis situations, such as a global pandemic like the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infections.

Therefore, to match the expectations of the patients, to provide them with utmost care,to have a systematic approach by a healthcare organization that monitors, assesses and improves the standards of quality healthcare. we need to have a well organized system that caters all the needs and requirements.