The root causes of disparate health outcomes include racism and bias, structural flaws in the health care system, and deep inequities within the drivers of health (DOH). To advance health equity, organizations should look outside of the traditional health care system and address these social, economic, and environmental factors that lead to healthy or unhealthy outcomes. This research focuses on the ways health care leaders can address inequities in the DOH in their patients and members, employees, and community, and through relationships in the larger ecosystem. Learn more Explore the health care collection Learn about Deloitte's services Go straight to smart. Get the Deloitte Insights app.
In 2017, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions surveyed nearly 300 health system leaders and found that 80% said they were committed to establishing and developing processes to systematically address social needs as part of clinical care. However, the same survey revealed that much of the activity was ad hoc, and gaps remained in connecting initiatives that improve health outcomes or reduce costs. This time, as we relaunched the survey with health system leaders, we added health plan leaders. (author introduction)