Strategies

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

99 Strategies
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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

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Proper drug disposal programs

Establish programs that accept expired, unwanted, or unused medicines from designated users and dispose of them responsibly
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use
  • Air, water and land

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

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Laws and policies

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

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Recreational marijuana legalization

Allow adults to possess a limited amount of marijuana for personal, non-medical use; often called recreational marijuana laws (RMLs)
Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use
  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Reproductive life plans

Establish plans consistent with personal values and current life circumstances that set goals related to having or not having children; goals often change over time
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Responsible beverage server training (RBS/RBST)

Educate owners, managers, servers, and sellers at alcohol establishments about strategies to avoid illegally selling alcohol to underage youth or intoxicated patrons
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use

Retail alcohol sale privatization

Repeal government control over retail sales of alcoholic beverages, allowing commercial retailing of those beverages
Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Retail clinics

Establish clinics in retail stores that provide basic services for minor illnesses (e.g., sore throats or skin conditions) and procedures (e.g., immunizations, pregnancy testing, routine lab tests); also known as retail pharmacy, walk-in, or convenient care clinics
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care