January 15, 2025
Why the U.S. needs more community health workers
With the right strategies and public policies, we can strengthen our nation’s health system by focusing on this critical part of the workforce.
A community health worker helps a patient get healthy food.
Community health workers are hidden heroes of our complex health care system. Sometimes called promotores de salud, outreach workers, navigators, or peer counselors, they tie together the often-disconnected services people need to support good health.
They increase a patient’s likelihood of getting much-needed primary care, while decreasing the odds of that person being rehospitalized after a hospital stay.
They improve care outcomes and help avoid unneeded health care spending while improving patients’ overall mental health and well-being.
At Kaiser Permanente, we’re excited to bring their services to more members and patients, and to be working with the Common Health Coalition to help other health care organizations do the same.
The role of community health workers
Often employed by community-based organizations and public health departments, community health workers link people to health care services. But perhaps more importantly, they connect people to resources that can help meet their basic social health needs.
Community health workers may, for example:
- Arrange transportation for a patient who keeps missing doctor appointments because they don’t have a dependable way to get there
- Help a person who has diabetes and a low income find a local food bank or community food program so they have access to more nutritious food
- Help a new mother find a doctor who speaks her language and identify the vaccinations her baby needs to stay healthy
These unmet social health needs, like lack of food, stable housing, and reliable transportation, often lead to poor health outcomes for people and their families. By doing this connecting work across health care systems, public health departments, and community-based organizations, community health workers ensure that patients are getting the most comprehensive care and support possible.
Even more importantly, community health workers are front-line health workers who are trusted sources of information and guidance in their communities. They often share ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and life experiences with the community members they serve. These connections help community health workers bridge a gap otherwise filled by friend or family caregivers who may lack the time, training, or resources needed to care for their loved ones the ways they wish they could.
Community health workers at Kaiser Permanente
Starting almost 5 years ago Kaiser Permanente began an initiative in the Pacific Northwest to research different ways community health workers could help improve patient care and outcomes.
We asked a partner organization we work with — one that trains and supports community health workers — to reach out to help specific Kaiser Permanente members with high social health needs who were at greater risk for poor health outcomes and higher care utilization.
For example, one of our members, a recent immigrant from China with lung cancer, couldn’t get to her oncology appointments. A community health worker not only helped her find transportation with a Cantonese-speaking driver, the community health worker also created a printed, easy-to-use schedule of her appointments and helped her get nutritious food from a local food bank.
Now, 5 years later, we’ve found that members paired with a community health worker have more primary care visits and fewer hospital days, and their cost of care is reduced.
Building on these results we’re integrating community health workers into the big picture of how we care for patients in more areas across the country where we provide care.
Collaboration through the Common Health Coalition
As we’re taking steps to bring community health workers in to help more Kaiser Permanente members, we’re also working with other health care leaders to help them do the same.
Together with the Common Health Coalition, a group comprised of health plans, doctors, and public health leaders, we’re working to strengthen the relationships between health care organizations and public health systems.
We’ll be helping coalition members and partners identify and spread best practices when it comes to deploying community health workers to improve the lives of patients across the country.
Recommendations to policy leaders
We can’t grow this part of the workforce without the support of our leaders at the local, state, and federal levels.
As with many health care professions, there is an insufficient number of community health workers to meet the growing demand. We need public policies that support their training, retention, and career growth.
The right policies can also help us understand the most effective ways to deploy community health workers in community and health care settings.
Policymakers can help by:
- Funding research to support national standards for curriculum development, training, and certification for community health workers
- Funding training to increase the number of community health workers in the workforce
- Supporting research on how health systems can best deploy community health workers
- Supporting career development in the health care field for community health workers so they can grow their skills and talents
The right partnerships, strategies, and public policies will help ensure health care organizations, public health, and community organizations can work together to improve health for more people.
