Strategies

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

104 Strategies
Clear all

Scrap programs for old vehicles

Provide incentives to trade in old cars or light duty trucks with low fuel efficiency and high emissions and buy new vehicles with higher efficiency and lower emissions; also called scrappage or vehicle early retirement programs
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Air, water and land
  • Climate

State-level minimum nurse staffing requirements for nursing homes

Establish state level regulations that require nursing homes to employ at least a set number of licensed and non-licensed nursing staff, often set in terms of staff hours per resident day
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Synthetic progesterone (17P) access

Ensure appropriate access to 17P, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, by identifying high-risk women, reducing barriers to treatment receipt and completion, coordinating care, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Telemedicine

Deliver consultative, diagnostic, and treatment services remotely, especially for patients who live in areas with limited access to care or who experience transportation or mobility barriers; sometimes called telehealth
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Telemental health services

Provide mental health care services (e.g., psychotherapy or counseling) via telephone or videoconference
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Text message-based health interventions

Provide reminders, education, or self-management assistance for health conditions, especially chronic diseases, via text message
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Trauma-informed health care

Adopt universal trauma precautions and provide trauma-specific care to patients in health care organizations
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Urban agriculture

Support food-producing and income-earning activities in urban environments (e.g., edible landscapes, front yard or rooftop gardens, window farming, hydroponics, livestock, etc.)
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate
  • Civic and community resources

Value-based insurance design

Create financial incentives or remove financial disincentives to affect consumer choices and incentivize provision of cost efficient health care services
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Value-based purchasing (VBP)

Use the purchasing power of employers and groups of insured individuals to create incentives and disincentives for health care providers to deliver high quality, high value care
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Budgets