The survey of more than 500 healthcare professionals found a sizable increase from 2019 to 2021 in the number of healthcare leaders who identify health equity as one of their organization’s top three priorities: from 25% in 2019 to 58% in 2021.

Many commercial health plans require PROM collection for participation in value-based programs, while accountable care organizations use PROMs to measure and incentivize providers for maintaining certain quality standards. According to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, 24% of clinical data registries have already incorporated PROs into their datasets.

Over the last 20 years, much more focus has been placed on areas such as safety and efficiency rather than equity, resulting in inconsistent or episodic progress in each area. For example, safety has arguably received most of the attention and focus, but somehow, preventable harm is still frequent across the continuum of care.

As we recover from a worldwide pandemic—a crisis that has cost millions of lives and crippled economies, infrastructure, and governments—many healthcare organizations are realizing that they can achieve far better outcomes if they consider all of the social determinants of health.

If money were no issue, building more clinics would be a great way to prevent referral leakage, but short of that, organizations have to find a way to differentiate their network’s care as better, safer, and more convenient than the competition.