The transformational leader and champion for health equity and belonging will kick off the first day of the main conference with a presentation on social determinants of health and value-based care’s impact on risk adjustment.
Benjamin Anderson, MBA, MHCDS, vice president for rural health and hospitals at the Colorado Hospital Association, former hospital CEO, and a nationally-recognized leader in health equity and transforming rural health care, will present the opening keynote address at the Risk Adjustment Forum on Tuesday, May 9, at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park.
Anderson will draw on his experience as the CEO of Kearny County Hospital in Lakin, Kan. to help risk adjustment and quality specialists connect social determinants of health, value-based care, and risk adjustment in the development of strategies to mitigate risks associated with caring for high-need populations.
COVID-19 shined a spotlight on health disparities that exist in the United States that can not be ignored, Anderson told RISE during a recent interview. Health care costs have accelerated to the point that they are eating up resources that were previously allocated for other social services. “It’s not only the old and the poor, but the average American who is also struggling to afford health care and is delaying services,” he said.
But it is the older, sicker, and poorer populations that are the most expensive to care for and no one in the government or health care sector wants to own the whole problem. “As a society, the responsibility is on all of us to work together to find and implement solutions,” he said.
The key is to start with a simple outcome needing improvement, one that matters to the people we are serving, Anderson explained. We then engage all “willing” stakeholders, defining what each can contribute to improving that outcome. We ensure we understand why progress hasn’t already happened, how success would be measured, and when we would expect to see progress. Anderson said we can build on the success of that initial effort and call on the team to help convince others to collaboratively solve more difficult problems, each time considering what is most important to patients.
As an example, he recalled the day an elderly gentleman, a retired attorney, scheduled an appointment with him seeking help to reach his wife, who had dementia and was living in the hospital’s nursing home. While the man could visit her physically, he couldn’t connect with her emotionally or talk with her as she had been heavily sedated to control her behaviors. Anderson investigated and learned that 38 percent of their nursing home residents were being similarly sedated to mitigate their behavioral issues. “We asked ‘if this was your grandmother, what would you want for her?’,” Anderson said.
They began a year-long journey to transform the systems around care through first learning each resident’s story and then adapting care. Care teams learned what the residents were like when they were in their 30s or 40s, their work, and when their children were young. For example, after dinner one resident would barge into the kitchen to wash the dishes. And though the staff would explain it wasn’t her kitchen, the same behavior occurred each night. One day, a dietary worker invited her to wash a pot. Doing so calmed the resident and she willingly transitioned to her room for the night. Over time, staff were able to eliminate psychotropic medications in her plan of care. “For 60 years she would wash dishes after dinner,” Anderson said, “Why would we expect that to change?”
Once the team learned the residents’ stories and built the capacities of staff to redirect behaviors, they were able to reduce the use of sedating medications by 75 percent. Falls and skin issues declined, along with the total cost of caring for these vulnerable people.
Anderson said that because of the care management changes, the elderly gentleman who first brought the issue to his attention was able to emotionally reconnect with his wife. Anderson keeps a picture of the two of them in his office.
“If she were only a number, we would drug her up and keep her “comfortable.” But that’s not who we are as a nation or health system. We must start by humanizing the issue and committing to system changes. Reduced risk and improved outcomes will follow,” he said.
Anderson said continuing to ignore social determinants of health is not an option. “We have to get after this. The sustainability of our health care delivery system will require it,” he said.
About Benjamin Anderson
Benjamin Anderson is vice president for rural health and hospitals at the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA), where he provides leadership and direction in the development and execution of the Association's rural strategies, advocates on behalf of rural hospitals and health systems and works to develop strategic partnerships with organizations that affect the health of rural Americans.
Prior to joining CHA, Benjamin served as CEO of Kearny County Hospital, a comprehensive rural health care delivery complex in Lakin, Kan. that serves patients of 30 nationalities within a 180-mile radius. Anderson is a recognized leader in transforming rural health care through a mission-driven approach to recruiting physicians to underserved areas, tying together domestic and international service. Kearny County Hospital is now at the forefront of innovations in health care delivery to improve care to underserved U.S. populations and his work was recently recognized on CBS Sunday Morning and National Public Radio, and in POLITICO and Sports Illustrated.
Anderson was named to Becker's Hospital Review's Rising Star list of health care leaders under 40 and one of Modern Healthcare's 2014 Up and Comers. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English (2004) and a Master of Business Administration (2007) from Drury University in Springfield, Mo. and a Master of Health Care Delivery Science degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
The 21st Risk Adjustment Forum will take place May 9-10, with preconference workshops on May 8, at the at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park. Anderson will present his keynote on Tuesday, May 9 at 8:40 a.m. Click here for the full agenda, list of speakers, and how to register.