Overall, this elective course taught me several valuable concepts that should be considered by healthcare leaders. First, although public health is funded separately from hospitals, collaboration between sectors is necessary for improved population health. Next, hospitals require public health expertise to determine high-risk populations within the community they serve and these community needs assessments are valuable for hospital strategic planning. Finally, by understanding the role of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in public health, including health promotion and screening, it can facilitate better community partnerships between inpatient and outpatient care, which is more likely to have wider-spread positive effects on community health.

         After completing other courses in quality and public health, I am much more aware of the absolute need for strong public health and community partnerships with hospitals to improve population health. When considering how to improve hospital capacity, outpatient programs closely tied to admission avoidance that provide community assistance and secondary and tertiary prevention strategies (i.e., for COPD and CHF patients) are crucial in supporting these high-risk populations. Although political barriers to macro-level public health interventions persist, local hospitals have major opportunities to support programs that benefit patient outcomes and efficiencies both in the hospital and the community platform. An improvement in a community’s population health is invaluable to the patient themselves, public health and hospital outcomes.