Policy leadership for health care transformation

Policy Leadership for Health Care Transformation was a year-long project of MHCU and the Public Health Institute, who collaborated throughout 2017 to identify specific institutional policies and civic engagement strategies that can be used by hospitals and health systems to codify, sustain, and scale practices that address social determinants of health in local communities. With input from 18 hospitals and health systems that were early pioneers in the upstream movement as well as guidance from an advisory board of 13 nationally recognized subject matter experts, the collaboration produced a paper that: Summarizes the goals of the initiative and the methodology used to create the organizing framework and recommendations; Presents an action-oriented organizing framework of Institutional Policy Strategies and Civic Engagement Strategies, supported by examples from participating hospitals and health systems; and Includes a compendium of sample policy documents, generously shared by participating hospital and health systems. The concrete, action-oriented strategies and examples within the paper are intended to inform and accelerate upstream work of others in the field.