The Imperative for Integrating Public Health and Health Care Delivery Systems

Health care leaders in Dallas County, Texas, are bringing together population-level public health and patient-level individual care by rethinking the roles of care delivery. While such initiatives are not new, the coronavirus pandemic creates an impetus to accelerate such efforts. Leaders at Parkland Health & Hospital System (PHHS) and the county Health and Human Services Department are integrating clinical health care delivery methods with the core public health functions of collecting and analyzing data, contact tracing, outbreak investigation, immunizations, isolation, quarantine, and social services support. Technology-based solutions are being developed and deployed to identify people most at risk of exposure to the virus. PHHS’s affiliated Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation has developed a Social Needs Index, a Proximity Index, and a Vulnerability Index to help identify, educate, and care for the county’s high-risk population.