Nemours, a five-state pediatric health system with hospitals and clinics in Jacksonville, changes its name.

But this is only the first step toward what President and CEO R. Lawrence Moss hopes will be Nemours ’new identity as a leader in a nationwide change in the way we view, lend and fund children’s health care.

Change the way America cares for children

“Nemours plans to play a major role in changing the way America cares for children,” Moss said. “The way we pay for medical care for children is economical, driven by volume and complexity … That’s the opposite of health.

“Our commitment to transforming children’s health recognizes that we need to rewrite their definition,” he said. “Why now? The kids in the community need us to do it now … Nemours will be the one to step up.”

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Children’s health Nemours

Moss unveiled the new name, Nemours Children’s Health, for all of its locations, logo and five-year strategic plan Wednesday during a Founder’s Day virtual event commemorating the philanthropic legacy of Alfred I. duPont.

In an interview with The Times-Union, he acknowledged that changing children’s health care from the current service rate model to a “pay for health” model was a “big, ambitious goal.”

Fifteen percent of children’s health is the product of “quality health care,” he said, while 85 percent comes from so-called social determinants of health, such as quality education, safe housing. , food security and protection from violence and other harm. These social determinants need to be addressed before children have the resulting negative impacts in adulthood, he said.

It pays for health, not service

“It’s a much bigger thing … Our way of life,” Moss said. Children’s hospitals “should be general managers” of children’s health care, but other health systems, insurance companies, community organizations, non-profit organizations and governments should be involved.

In a white paper called “How Children Can Transform the Economy … and Health Care,” Moss noted that children typically account for 7% of total spending on health care, but the number skyrockets when they become adults.

“By improving the health and well-being of children today, we will have a healthier adult population in the future, helping to improve the health care system and strengthen the economy,” he wrote. “The benefit of childhood intervention is enormous. Health trajectories and behaviors can still be easily influenced. These changes can last a lifetime and even affect the next generation.

“A healthier adult population will spend less on health care, it will cost less for the government or employers to insure themselves, earn more income and be more productive members of the workforce,” Moss wrote.

The change will require a “complete cultural transformation,” he wrote. According to the current service fee model, “a lot of people make a lot of money. They’re doing well,” he told The Times-Union. But Nemours will lead the way to change, “setting an example, showing what is possible,” he said.

That’s right, according to the white paper:

• Create a “value-based service organization,” an internal entity that includes teams dedicated to population health management, care management and coordination, and data analysis. Nemours has already formed its own group that works with community specialists and doctors to improve care, reduce “misuse of health care,” and control costs. The group also works with insurance companies to move financial incentives away from their service commission contracts and toward “value-based” contracts.

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• Consult patients not only as children who are in a hospital or seen in a clinic, but also as all children in the community, whether or not they are seeking medical attention. Think of them, for example, as patients with poorly controlled asthma or children with learning disabilities and “direct them directly with the help they need”.

• Form partnerships with experts in education, food security and other social determinants and state and local entities “to share risk and reward.”

The community approach

According to the statement, a “community-based approach” will be needed to address those social, economic and demographic preventive factors that affect a child’s health … with the same vigor used to treat children with acute and emerging health needs. “.

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The Children’s Hospital Association, which has offices in Washington, DC and Kansas City, “certainly applauds Nemours’ vision for healthier children,” but declined to comment on the details of the plan, spokeswoman Gillian Ray said.

Michael Aubin, president of Baptist Health’s Wolfson Children’s Hospital, which is also in Jacksonville, supported the new goals. Wolfson and Nemours have a “long-standing partnership” and will continue to work together to improve the health of children in the communities they serve, he said.

“For more than three decades, Nemours pediatricians … have provided specialized care to children battling health battles at Wolfson Children’s Hospital,” Aubin said. “Our work does not end when the child leaves the hospital or office. It is our responsibility to reach beyond the walls of the hospital to our communities, break down barriers to health care and prevent childhood illnesses and injuries occur in the first place. “

As part of its new plan, Nemours will also “increase investment in key initiatives, including improving the child health care model, the value, creation and advocacy of a national strategy for children’s health, innovation in health care system research and leveraging clinical experience, ”according to a statement from Nemours.

The impetus for the name change and the new logo was to create a “unified brand” through Nemour’s five-state health system and raise public awareness, he said during the virtual meeting with staff.

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“When I first arrived [in 2018] … you told me that Nemours needed to tell his story better. People didn’t know us, we need to be more visible, ”Moss said. The new name and logo“ will drive positive change. Children need Nemours’ voice to be heard. “

Beth Reese Cravey: bcravey@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4109

NEMOURS IN FLORIDA

• Alfred I. duPont was born in 1864 in Delaware, where his family owned a gunpowder manufacturing plant, EI du Pont de Nemours and Co. He and his third wife Jessie Ball moved to Jacksonville in 1926, with duPont dedicated to real estate investing, philanthropy. He died in 1935 and, through the terms of his will, the Nemours Foundation was created a year later dedicated to the health of children.

The foundation now funds health care organizations in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including children’s hospitals in Wilmington, Del. I Orlando; 80 specialized and primary care practices; a policy and defense office in Washington, DC; its corporate headquarters in Jacksonville; and KidsHealth.org, a popular website for child and adolescent health information.

• In 1981 Nemours bought Hope Haven Children’s Hospital on Atlantic Boulevard in Jacksonville, which the previous year had been limited to outpatient services. The purchase became Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, which opened in its current location in 1991.

• The Nemours Foundation will keep its name; the new Nemours Children’s Health will be the new name for its healthcare facilities from August.

• A recently published book, “Images of America: Nemours Children’s Health,” documents the story of Nemours. The book was written by Nemours president and CEO R. Lawrence Moss and published by Arcadia Publishing.

To read Moss’s white paper, “How Children Can Transform the Economy … and Health Care,” go to nemours.org/content/dam/nemours/wwwv2/childrens-health-system/media/whitepaper -children-economy.pdf.

For more information about Nemours, go to nemours.org.