Population health initiatives in healthcare are gaining momentum, but adoption of vendor provided population health solutions are still in early stages.

As the emphasis on the change in delivery of care escalates from volume to value-based care, population health management initiatives are becoming more prevalent across healthcare. However, many organizations are addressing their initial population health needs without a population health vendor-provided IT solution. In this Essential Brief, we share insight from nearly 200 healthcare executives (C-Suite, Administrators, Directors & VPs) on their population health initiatives, and their current and future approach to population health IT solutions and consultants.

Highlights include:

• Roughly 11 percent of study respondents with initiatives in place currently use a consultant for their population health strategy.
• Over half of study respondents without current population health initiatives in place plan to employ initiatives in the future.
• Just over a third of organizations with plans to employ population health initiatives in the future plan to use a consultant or would consider it.
• Sixty-seven percent of surveyed organizations claim to have population health programs in place, only one quarter of those currently utilize a vendor provided solution to address their population health needs.

UPDATE February, 2016: Chronic Disease Management and Preventive Health/Wellness

HIMSS Analytics has released an addendum to the study that focuses on chronic disease management and preventive health and wellness, allowing for even deeper insight into the current practices of population health initiatives in healthcare.