Frequently Asked Questions

Elevate Health and its organizational partners — from healthcare providers, community-based organizations, social service agencies and government agencies to tribal councils and other authorities — are working together to transform community health in Pierce County.

Our focus is to create an accurate snapshot in time of what’s taking place in our community by taking into account the data we hold and the data from individual organizations.

By integrating these stores of data we will be able to better coordinate an individual’s care and help them address multiple challenges. We’ll also be able to help policymakers find and address community health challenges in our region.

We often think of health in individual and personal terms: my health, my mother’s health, my child’s health. Population health involves looking at the health outcomes and the social determinants of health that affect large groups of people. Public health, on the other hand, is what we do as a society to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy.

When we blend individual health, population health and public health data, we can begin to understand community health and operate from a place of prevention to improve health outcomes.

The Community Data Trust supports not only the health of individual, but also leverages population health data to inform community health. By analyzing large quantities of de-identified data, the trust can help pinpoint emerging or existing health challenges within a region or ZIP code, and plan interventions to affect outcomes.

To date, partners include Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Pierce County, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, Community Health Care, Pierce County Superior Court, and United Way of Pierce County. All the behavioral health care providers we work with in our region are working with us to onboard, as well as several managed care organizations and payors.

Yes, we do. We know that more partnerships and larger collections of data will lead to better population health visualizations. Once we have a more thorough, detailed picture of needs and care gaps in Pierce County, we can work to address them.

The Washington State Health Department and the Washington Department of Health have created health information exchanges (HIE) to allow health care professionals, providers, public health, and health systems to securely exchange clinical or business information in standardized messages.

However, both HIE are centered solely on healthcare information, do not have analysis and reporting capabilities standards set in today’s marketplace, or the ability to forecast community health needs.

The Community Data Trust extends the intent of the state HIE and buttresses its available data to incorporate other systems for a truly comprehensive and 360-degree view of community data in real time.

Elevate Health is, first and foremost, a government seeded and government regulated entity. Our sole purpose is to be stewards of health equity in our region and facilitate improvements for the social determinants of health. We are held to a higher standard and have a higher level of accountability as a result.

The greater the diversity of the data shared with the Community Data Trust, the more opportunities will arise for its members and stakeholders to improve the health of our communities. Elevate Health is taking a conservative, pragmatic approach with our partners to ensure the trust is a true community asset with the ability to support the use cases of its membership. All use cases will be decided upon by the Community’s Data Trust’s set governance, and will adhere to rules and regulations in place by state and federal authorities.

For instance, data may be used to create risk-scores for the identification, stratification, and management of high-risk individuals, central to improving quality and cost outcomes for healthcare organizations. Other use cases may include leverage data in order to invest in community needs that encourage more positive living conditions and health outcomes – such as increased transportation infrastructure, increasing WiFi access for neighborhoods with low access, or making lasting investments in early learning opportunities for a larger number of children.

Elevate Health is seeding the establishment of the Community Data Trust using its own resources, but it will take commitment from everyone in the community to sustain the trust’s success.

Members of the collective will be able to access an incredible array of up-to-date information that will allow each to forecast, assess, create efficiencies, use resources more effectively, and best serve the populations in their communities.

Once governance for the Community Data Trust is set, interested organization will also be able to set-up a graded fee structure for services that align with agreed-upon data uses.

Data ingested into the trust will enter a single, secure, HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST platform. The model for trust around the trust will be based upon the agreement of its governance and their shared adherence to its policies, guidelines and use cases. Each member organization has a vested interest in the safety and security of the platform so it will remain the highest priority during the Community Data Trust’s establishment and its long-term sustainability.

When the Community Data Trust is crunching numbers for risk stratification in an individual’s case management there will be a greater depth of information available for the appropriate and authorized uses. In most cases, information will be de-identified and encrypted so privacy and patient rights are preserved.

We’d be delighted to speak with you. Please contact us at datatrust@elevatehealth.org.