| The health industry is being pressured by the United States government to cut costs and improve the outcomes of care for defined population groups. Achieving these goals appears to be critical to the survival of healthcare organizations. According to experts in leadership, collaboration is vitally important to enhance populations' health status and to address health disparities that continually plague our countries and economies. This research study examined the critical reasons and rationale that are important for effective collaboration among healthcare and non-healthcare leaders in addressing population health issues. This study gauged attitude of leaders regarding their willingness to work in collaboratives to effectively address health disparities.;The researcher determined that the regional population of Augusta, Georgia, was representative of healthcare organization executives and physicians in larger metropolitan areas. A survey was administered to determine providers' attitudes toward collaboratives. Demographic information were gathered, including gender, age, racial grouping, practice specialty for physicians, hospital size, and whether the healthcare provider was located in a rural or metropolitan area.;Research consistently shows that certain factors must be addressed to help solve population health issues. Rather than the traditional treatment of disease by doctors and hospitals, this new trend of population health management examines the environment, heredity, lifestyles, and the medical care and delivery system to teach methods of disease prevention. Hence, collaborative efforts are needed among healthcare leaders and community members or non-healthcare leaders.;This study was deemed important to the field of population health primarily because healthcare administration leaders need to collaborate with other medical care providers, social agencies, and non-healthcare leaders to improve population health and achieve healthcare goals. The study will be beneficial as researchers continue to gauge attitudes that healthcare providers have about the importance of collaboration as a means to affect patient care, income, and positively impact productivity, within population health culture. Furthermore, this study provided invaluable statistics that are helpful for healthcare leaders who want to improve population health and understand what forces shape and determine the health of a population. |
