Abstract Introduction
A population health approach aims to improve the health outcomes of people within a defined population, encompassing the wider determinants of health and involving people and communities. In 2014, NHS Southwark CCG introduced a new population health management contract structure for local GP services with the overarching aim to provide population-based services that would ensure equal access for all residents and improve patient outcomes. MethodThe evaluation focused on four services delivered by the new population health management contract (pre-diabetes checks, ABPM, manual pulse checks, health checks), examining across four domains how performance changed over time. The four domains chosen were Performance, Variation, Diagnostic coverage and Patient outcomes. Both quantitative data and feedback from qualitative semi-structured interviews were utilised to evaluate performance.
Results
For all the interventions, there was an improvement in performance across the four year period following contract implementation in terms of numbers of checks completed in total. Unfortunately, the variation between practices showed no improvement across the interventions (excluding Health Checks). Diagnostic coverage utilised QOF and PHE data and generally showed improvement or stable performance. Information available was insufficient to determine whether patient outcomes for the interventions had altered as a result of the population health approach ConclusionThe evaluation demonstrated an improvement in practice performance following introduction of the population health management approach; however we see substantial variation between practice performance remains. Barriers to delivery included system/reporting issues and staff capacity. External funding details