Peter Schwartz, Futurist, and author, of The Art of the Long View, stated that
"…if you wanted to see the future you could not go to conventional sources of information, or use traditional methods."
Our health and social care system is arguably facing its most testing period yet. An increasing number of government funding, technology and service delivery initiatives have started to address this longer-term. In order to prepare for these long-term challenges, providers and funders need to collectively think and shift beyond using typical planning cycles, to using a population health approach.
Population health is a visionary management approach to redesigning the care for a group of individuals with the aim of making their overall health and healthcare better and more efficient. It also signals a change in the way healthcare is accessed, provided and utilized.
By taking an analytical approach to understanding the population needs using digital decision-making tools, we are able to identify care gaps based on evidence-based guidelines. Using this information, we work closely with our clients to better understand systemic barriers, align investment in programs and services and develop systems and teams that meet targeted outcomes.
Our population health method encompasses the programs, services, tactics and initiatives that a health system utilizes to assume the accountability for the outcomes of care and the cost of that care for an entire population. Taking a model-of-care approach, Pepler Group improves population health by connecting leaders and decision makers with the best evidence and experience. Using this approach, providers are better able to project future healthcare demands that are unique to demographic groups, disease trajectories, patient and family needs and communities. With this deep understanding of the issues and skills required to address these challenges, we bring collective action to improve the well-being of communities.
A model of care approach is a multifaceted concept which broadly defines the way health and social care services are delivered. It can therefore be applied to health and social care services delivered on a number of levels: provincial, regional, community, division, program or unit.
Our approach to designing and changing to a new model of care is based on structured, evidence-based methods and methodology. We take a four-phase approach to the process of changing a model of care. Within each phase issues are identified; appropriate communication processes are outlined and sources of data to assist the decision process are used. Scenarios are co-created to align with current policy and local, provincial and national directives, and are designed based on the most appropriate available evidence. Each scenario addresses specific health and social care issues, workforce, technology and the delivery system of the population identified including high risk groups, Indigenous and vulnerable groups.
Using strategic simulation tools takes a macro approach to modelling a system as a whole and is useful for answering high level questions such as:
Our team, using intelligent decision-making tools, is helping clients globally to inform capacity, demand and workforce needs. Clients are recognizing the need to have these tools in their ‘toolkit of knowledge’ especially as they move forward with addressing future challenges of achieving balancing finite resources with demand. Successful implementation of the strategic plan and new models of care is the most important and difficult part of the process. Moving from knowledge to action necessitates an approach which can test the ‘what if’ and associated risks to ensure organization readiness, capacity and skills to implementing the vision for change.