Earlier this month, we welcomed health and care colleagues from across the region to hear from two leaders from the Southcentral Foundation of Alaska. They spoke to us about their transformational journey and creation of the system of care, called ‘Nuka’, which is a powerful role model for integrated health systems globally.
At the event, we heard from April Kyle, chief executive officer, and Doug Eby, medical director, who explained the approach taken to improve outcomes and reduce costs by working together with their communities over the last 20 years.
Integrated working is at the heart of their approach, combined with a relentless focus on listening to their communities and developing relationships – they have opted for the whole person and family way of doing healthcare. The full integration of mental health, physical health and social care in the structural design of Nuka is key, as is their focus on families.
Guided by a clear set of operational principles for everyone working in the Nuka system to follow, there was a strong emphasis on the workforce too. Not just co-located teams but fully integrated with no individual offices or silos. Values, team work, behaviours and improvement underpin their way of working, with leaders who are curious and support improvement.
There was a lot to take away from this truly inspirational morning, from a system that has shown outstanding and sustained health improvement through the transformation of system-wide health and care delivery.
We will be discussing learning from this event as we continue to push forward as a health and care system to be the best at getting better.
Download a copy of the presentation from the day below:
Find out more about Nuka here…
