Stephen Rosenthal on the Hospital's Responsibility to the Community

A hospital’s service does not end when the patient is discharged, as Stephen Rosenthal, senior vice president of population health management at the Montefiore Health System, believes that it’s important to consider the hospital as a part of the greater community it serves in. Various hospital programs are helping patients transition from the hospital to their home by means of offering patients different housing options following their hospital stay.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How well are new payment models helping to address social determinants of health?

And how are they changing the way health systems deliver care? Well, I think that there’s a recognition that hospitals need to play a broader role in the communities that they service. And often, some of the social determinants of health are often based on the, obviously, social challenges that individuals are facing. So whether it’s dealing with things like an unstable home environment, hospitals are finding themselves becoming more involved in the community realm, making housing available.

For example, we have a program where we actually rent 6 apartments in a community based organization that helps us transition individuals to a safe environment from the hospital while they try and find a more permanent housing location for them. So we know that they’re moving into a safe environment.

We know, for example, that individuals who have mental illness are 10 times more likely to be readmitted. So if we can focus on making connections for them in the community to help support their mental health challenges, we find that we can reduce the number of unnecessary admissions into the hospital.

So, it’s beginning to think about the hospital as part of the community and being able to service those social commitments that become important to the hospital and to the providers that work around the hospital and of course, the population.