Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

An Integrated Framework for Assessing the Value of Community-Based Prevention

For the last century, the major causes of disease and death among Americans have changed, shifting from predominantly communicable diseases spread by germs to chronic ailments. This shift has been accompanied by a deeper understanding about what keeps people healthy or leaves them vulnerable to becoming ill. To get at the heart of the challenges to living a healthy life, we must increasingly emphasize factors that affect today's causes of morbidity and mortality.

Despite their importance to preventing illness, determining the value of community-based interventions has proven difficult. Preventing illness requires immediate investments with benefits that might not be realized for many years.

This report proposes a framework to assess the value of community-based, non-clinical prevention policies and wellness strategies. The framework represents a valuable step toward realizing the elusive goal of appropriately and comprehensively valuing community-based prevention.