Strategies

What Works for Health includes evidence-informed strategies to create communities where everyone can thrive.

59 Strategies
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Adult vocational training

Support acquisition of job-specific skills through education, certification programs, or on-the-job training, often with personal development resources and other supports

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment

Ban the Box

Prohibit criminal history questions on job applications and postpone background checks

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Employment

Behavioral health primary care integration

Revise health care processes and provider roles to integrate mental health and substance abuse treatment into primary care; continue to refer patients with severe conditions to specialty care

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Bridge programs for hard-to-employ adults

Provide basic skills (e.g., reading, math, writing, English language, or soft skills) and industry-specific training with other supports; also called occupationally contextualized basic education programs

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Education
  • Employment

Career pathways programs

Provide occupation-specific training for low-skilled individuals in high-growth industries, with education and supports, usually with stackable credentials and work experience opportunities

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Employment

Carpool & rideshare programs

Help participants share transportation via informal arrangements between individuals, formally arranged ridesharing programs, or other ride-matching services

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Air and Water Quality
  • Housing and Transit

Case-managed care for community-dwelling frail elders

Use a case management model for frail elderly patients living independently, coordinating aspects of long-term care (LTC) such as status assessment, monitoring, advocacy, care planning, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Chronic disease management programs

Implement multi-component efforts that include coordination of health services by multidisciplinary teams of health care professionals, patient self-management, and patient education

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Chronic disease self-management (CDSM) programs

Provide educational and behavioral interventions that support patients’ ability to actively manage their condition(s) in everyday life

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Consumer participation in health care governance

Involve consumers in health care governance via roles on governing boards, advisory committees, or shorter-term special projects

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Quality of Care

Consumer-directed health plans

Establish high deductible health plans paired with pre-tax medical expense accounts such as Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and information tools

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Cultural competence training for health care professionals

Increase health care providers’ skills and knowledge to understand and respond to cultural differences, value diversity, etc. via factual information, skills training, and other efforts

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Culturally adapted health care

Tailor health care to patients’ norms, beliefs, and values, as well as their language and literacy skills

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Debt advice for tenants with unpaid rent

Offer debt advice from trained providers to tenants with unpaid, overdue rent to help repay debt and increase financial literacy

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Income
  • Housing and Transit

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

Provide confidential worksite-based counseling and referrals to employees to address personal and workplace challenges

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Employment
  • Family and Social Support

Flexible scheduling

Offer employees control over an aspect of their schedule through arrangements such as flex time, flex hours, compressed work weeks, or self-scheduled shift work

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment

Green House homes

Support self-contained, homelike dwellings for 10-12 elderly adults who require nursing care; universal caregivers, usually CNAs, provide care and other supports while clinical teams visit for specialized care

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Health literacy interventions

Increase patients’ health-related knowledge via efforts to simplify health education materials, improve patient-provider communication, and increase overall literacy

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Access to Care
  • Quality of Care

Hospital wristband color standardization

Establish national standards for the colors of patient wristbands used to alert health care providers about specific conditions such as allergies or elevated fall risk

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Housing reparations

Apologize for discriminatory housing policies; increase subsidies, financing, and paths to homeownership for people of color; and invest in systematically disadvantaged neighborhoods

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Income
  • Housing and Transit

Housing trust funds

Support funds that help create or maintain affordable housing, subsidize rental housing, and assist homebuyers with low incomes and non-profit housing developers

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Housing and Transit

Individual incentives for public transportation

Offer incentives such as free or discounted bus, rail, or transit passes, reimbursements, partial payments, or pre-tax payroll deductions to encourage individuals’ use of existing public transit

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit

Integrated long-term care for community-dwelling frail elders

Support a collaborative approach by a multidisciplinary team of professionals working to meet the full range of long-term care (LTC) needs for frail elderly patients living in community settings

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Integrated pest management for indoor use

Support a four-tiered approach to indoor pest control that minimizes potential hazards to people, property, and the environment

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Housing and Transit

Job-sharing programs

Offer flexible working arrangements, allowing the duties of a single full-time position to be covered by two part-time employees

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Employment

Labor unions

Organize workers to bargain collectively for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment
  • Employment

Lead paint abatement programs

Eliminate lead-based paint and contaminated dust by removing or encapsulating lead paint, or removing lead painted fixtures and surfaces

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Housing and Transit

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs)

Provide funding via tax credits at the state and local level to support development and rehabilitation costs of low income rental housing

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit

Medical homes

Provide continuous, comprehensive, whole person primary care that uses a coordinated team of medical providers across the health care system

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care
  • Access to Care

Medical-legal partnerships

Integrate legal services into health care settings to address legal issues that affect health (e.g., housing, food, utilities); services provided by private practice lawyers, law students, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Multi-component fall prevention interventions for older adults

Provide a fixed, multi-component set of fall prevention interventions to older adults, usually in community settings, without an individualized risk assessment

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Quality of Care

Multi-component workplace supports for active commuting

Provide physical infrastructure (e.g., bike parking or showers), educational or social support (e.g., walking groups), and financial incentives that support active commuting

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit
  • Diet and Exercise

Nurse practitioner scope of practice

Use regulation to extend nurse practitioners’ (NPs’) scope of practice to provide care to the full scope of their training and skills without physician oversight, especially for primary care

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Nurse-friendly work environments

Improve work environments for nurses via establishment of strong nursing leadership, organizational support, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Access to Care
  • Quality of Care

On-site child care

Provide employees with child care options at work; care may be provided free of charge, partially subsidized as part of an employee benefit package, or offered at market rates

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Employment

Paid family leave

Provide employees with paid time off for circumstances such as a recent birth or adoption, a parent or spouse with a serious medical condition, or a sick child

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment

Paid sick leave laws

Require employers in an affected jurisdiction to provide paid time off for employees to use when ill or injured

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Employment

Patient financial incentives for preventive care

Use payments, vouchers, and other incentives to encourage patients to undergo preventive care such as screenings, vaccinations, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Patient navigators

Provide culturally sensitive assistance and care coordination, and guide patients through available medical, insurance, and social support; also called systems navigators

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Patient safety checklists

Use visual tools to prompt safe practices, standardize communication, and ensure no step is forgotten before, during, or after a medical procedure or other health care situation

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Patient shared decision making

Support joint decision making between health care practitioners and patients through shared decision making (SDM); part of patient-centered care

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Practice facilitation for primary care

Engage practice coaches or facilitators to work with primary care clinic staff to redesign clinical practices, organize quality improvement efforts, improve communication, share best practices, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Price transparency initiatives for patients

Make pricing for hospital procedures and other health care services publicly available, often via websites, online databases, report cards, or similar tools

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Professionally trained medical interpreters

Provide interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) in outpatient and inpatient health care settings, following training and certification

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Public reporting of health care quality performance

Make clinician, hospital, clinic, long-term care facility, and insurance plan performance on health care quality measures publicly available via report cards, reporting websites, or similar tools

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Quality of Care

Public reporting of health care-associated infections

Make health care facilities’ health care-associated or hospital-acquired infection (HAI) rates readily available to patients and providers

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Quality of Care

Radon mitigation programs

Prevent radon from entering occupied buildings and reduce existing indoor air radon levels via soil depressurization, home or room pressurization, heat recovery ventilation, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit

Rural transportation services

Establish transportation services for areas with low population densities using publicly funded buses and vans on a set schedule, dial-a-ride transit, volunteer ridesharing, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Access to Care
  • Housing and Transit