Did you know that auto racing has been the inspiration for some breakthrough improvements in Healthcare?  You can read more about that in a recent post on LinkedIn by Tom Dahlborg.  Meanwhile, “fasten your seatbelt” as I quickly link auto racing to health care to social determinants to collaboration to benchmarking to better health and human services.

These auto racing-inspired innovations in health care quality leveraged the power of benchmarking, an improvement method that I maintain may be the most underutilized yet among the most powerful.  And lately, I find myself wondering if we might be on the verge of a multitude of improvements in health and human services...if we leverage the power of benchmarking.

The First Laps?   In some ways, we've been on this journey a while. For me, it started around 2005 – 2010, when the concept and examination of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) started to gain traction in healthcare both globally¹ and in the US².  Hospitals were required to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment every three years starting in 2010. Meanwhile, another key human service organization network, the 1,000 plus Community Action Agencies, had been conducting Community Needs Assessments every three years since 1965.  Those needs assessments had always been focused on the root causes of poverty, which began to be referred to as Social Determinants of Poverty in the 2010s.  Within a few years, people working in various health and human services began to observe that the lists of SDOH and SDOP are mostly the same.  But they were still working pretty independently and on only a specific aspect of what were often broader, more complex challenges that Social Determinants present.

Out of Nowhere    Then something else happened that, to me, revealed another key to responding to social determinants.  And it came from maybe the last place I would have guessed would be a source of inspiration: Covid19.  During the Covid19 years, when facilitating the development of new Strategic Plans, clients began asking me to include in interviews with stakeholders a question about any “bright spot” in their experience with the Pandemic.  They wondered if something...anything...had come from all the tragedy and disruption.  Almost to a person and without hesitation, interviewees answered “yes”, explaining that they highly valued the power of collaboration across organizations and areas of expertise.  COVID19 forced people from different organizations who “knew each other existed but had rarely or never worked together” to meet and identify ways to respond to the rapidly escalating crisis.  For them, the experience was a gamechanger, with many choosing to retain some of those innovative approaches as permanent process improvements.  They hoped that even as the pandemic waned, they could find a way to keep this collaboration, and the innovation that came from it, going.

The Power of Learning from Others   What if social determinants could be next focus of this kind of collaboration? If so, what would be the “next step” beyond the initial commitment to work together to solve more challenges?  Perhaps carefully define the problem.  Then move on to find new and different (innovative) solutions.  That's where benchmarking may open the door.  Learning from others, in the same “industry” (health and human services) is an enormous opportunity.  How many communities in the US have a health care organization or a Community Action Agency?  Or both?  And a Health Department?  And a United Way Agency?  And one or more philanthropists that have a passion for the particular problem of focus?  You get the idea.

And what if in a few communities, these organizations came together and worked on the same, or similar challenge you want to address, and they had great success, but you just don’t know about it (yet)?  Imagine the power of learning from each other.

Now add out of industry benchmarking. Think of the expanded potential to find a part, or maybe the core, of a solution to what you are working to improve from some organization or group that on the surface, isn't anything like yours. Perhaps counter-intuitive, and yet Benchmarking experts like Bob Camp found that out-if-industry benchmarking actually leads to the biggest breakthroughs.  If you open your search for a best practice or “better way” to include similar organizations, and even different ones, the possibilities could be endless.  Remember, Tom Dahlborg and I can give you specific examples of how auto racing inspired significant improvements in healthcare.

Right Time, Right Tools?   So here we are today. Multiple organizations see the same challenges (social determinants), they had a taste of the power of collaboration (response to Covid19), and they might just need the right tool to innovate (Benchmarking).  I've said it before: "the solution probably already exists".   I can't wait to see what happens next.  You?

If you are interested in social determinants, collaboration, innovation, or benchmarking, I’d love to talk to you about the possibilities.

Contact me at your convenience.

Jeff

1 The World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants was operational from 2005 – 2008, they delivery their final report to WHO in July of 2008.

2 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AFA) of 2010 included requirements that hospitals conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment every three years.  These assessments assemble, analyze, and prioritize needs across many social determinants of health.