A patient’s overall health is influenced by a variety of factors, only a small percentage of which is health care in the traditional sense. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported its findings that health care accounted for only 10% of the factors leading to premature death, while social and environmental factors combined with individual behaviors made up a total of 60%. The national discussion on health care has moved decisively towards value-based purchasing and alternative payment models. Under these quality programs, providers are being forced to assume more and more risk for outcomes impacted by non-clinical factors which lie out of their control. Ultimately, providers are increasingly accountable for a patient’s health, not just health care.
Creating effective, economically feasible programs to address these factors has proven difficult for many hospitals. The traditional patient navigation models that utilize costly clinical resources and ill-suited technology platforms have failed to address the numerous non-clinical issues that can ultimately lead to adverse outcomes.

Care guidance goes beyond mere patient navigation—bridging gaps in care, creating patient behavioral change, and uncovering and addressing the hidden barriers to care and well-being within social determinants of health. Patients need support that goes beyond facility walls and addresses their whole spectrum of health. Providers need a trusted member of their care team that can help empower and activate patients in their health care journey. Guideway Care serves patients and providers with a proven, technology-enabled care guidance program that integrates with a hospital’s current care team to quickly and efficiently extend individualized, disease-specific support to patients outside facility walls.

Impact of Various Factors on Risk of Premature Death

SOURCE: Schroeder, SA. (2007). We Can Do Better—Improving the Health of the American People. NEJM. 357:1221-8.