Population health outcomes - North Coast Collective

The NCC has adopted a population health focus. This will include taking action on the interrelated conditions and factors that influence the health of populations over the life course. Population health is the result of collective action on health determinants.

Quadruple Aim of Affordable Healthcare

Our understanding of health outcomes is based on the Quadruple Aim of Affordable Healthcare.

The Quadruple Aim is an extension of the Triple Aim of Affordable Healthcare. Developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in 2008, the Triple Aim was an initial attempt to formally recognise the need to balance potentially competing objectives.

The three different aims are:

Improving the health of the population — population health¹
improving the individual experience of care — patient experience
reducing the per-capita cost of care — cost reduction

The fourth aim, caring for the carer, was proposed after a decade of experience in implementing, testing and studying the Triple Aim in numerous countries, including Australia. In addition to highlighting the need for a fourth aim, the 10-year period for observation and analysis has shown that the ‘guiding principles’ inherent in this approach result in improved outcomes across each of the aims simultaneously.

Metrics for health outcomes in development

One of the challenges noted in the literature covering the Quadruple Aim is the importance of using appropriate metrics to measure the different aims that together constitute health outcomes. The NCC has identified an appropriate suite of metrics that covers each of the four aims. In many cases the data required to measure these metrics is not yet available.

The intention is for the NCC to encapsulate the need for this data in the next tranche of agreements and contracts with all service providers.

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Population health refers to the health of a population as measured by health and other key indicators and as influenced by determinants including social, economic and physical environments, personal health practices, individual capacity and coping skills, human biology, early childhood development, and health services.