Responding to Hurricane Katrina Showed Karen DeSalvo the Role Social Determinants Play in Healthcare

Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive and deadly storm
that shut down communities along the Gulf Coast for months and
even years. While the scope and scale of this catastrophe are
undeniable, it also opened up doors to help move towards a system
that unites social care and clinical care, allowing medical
professionals to practice great medicine while also addressing
the non-medical drivers of health.


 


Dr. Karen DeSalvo was on the front lines of Katrina disaster
relief and she vividly remembers these doorways opening.
Delivering healthcare from atop ice chests and card tables in the
streets of New Orleans, Karen came to three major
realizations: 


1)     As important as medicine was, there were a
lot of other factors that mattered that she and other healthcare
professionals had to prioritize as leaders in the community who
people turned to for help.


2)    The most effective moments of care delivery came
when people who didn’t typically interact – nurses, social
workers, pharmacists, and others – united and worked together as
a well-aligned team. 


3)    Health systems should be created with a
community, not for a community. Instead of creating a system
around buildings and doctors, it’s more important to listen to
what the community and the people in it want to prioritize.