Each year the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) hosts a case analysis and presentation competition that provides graduate students with an excellent opportunity to use creativity, knowledge, and experience to address complex issues affecting healthcare systems everywhere.

In 2019, I was selected to serve as leader of the team that would represent the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health alongside 40 other public health programs across the country.

The primary directive was, in just three weeks, to design an effective strategy to address the needs of patient populations experiencing housing instability (homelessness) on behalf of a fictitious healthcare system called Golden Heath. Teams were given a budget of $100 million to be used across a three-year time span, and were required to:

●  Create a strategic plan to improve healthcare outcomes for the populations experiencing housing instability in the Bay Area,

●  Leverage recent trends in consumerism as well as new and emerging technologies/information systems to empower individuals to manage their most critical healthcare needs,

●  Evaluate government resources and social services partnerships to connect patients to the right services at the right time, and

●  Ensure the resulting initiative is financially viable within three years, complete with gap analyses and grounded evidence supporting the plan.

The reality is that 1) housing instability and healthcare are intimately entwined, and 2) the most common obstacle to healthcare is cost.

Although our team comprised only three members, we all had very different ideas about which strategic directions to take. I encouraged our team to ground ideas in solid research first and foremost. My research contributions, in particular, convinced me (and eventually the other members of the team) that a successful plan must be socioeconomic in nature—above and beyond the safe/traditional strategies hospital systems tend to use.

In the end, our proposal included a public-private funded conditional cash transfer program to help families experiencing homelessness break the cycle of poverty; social impact financing for the area’s shelters and navigation center systems; and investments in supportive housing partnerships that leverage existing government resources, public services, and community organizations. Most importantly, our plan required direct involvement at all levels by the community members we would serve. Of course, there is so much more to the proposal (and the overall experience), but these are the components I’m most proud of.