Dawn Johnson – Team Member Spotlight

Dawn Johnson joined COPE Health Solutions in January 2016 as Vice President, responsible for developing and growing our care coordination offering line of business. This line of business will support both the consulting and HCTI clients and programs. Dawn is a masters-prepared registered nurse with a diverse background in clinical care, health policy and consulting. With more than 20 years of professional healthcare industry experience spanning both the public and private sectors, she has worked with multiple federal agencies, state governments, private organizations and vendors. Dawn comes to COPE Health Solutions with a background in care management, care coordination, government relations, and health policy and business development.

Why do you enjoy working in the health care industry?
I am motivated by my background and training as a professional nurse. I have always sought opportunities that allow me to leverage my clinical, policy and business expertise. I am always hopeful that the end result of my engagements will have a positive impact on those receiving health care services.

What are the favorite aspects of your role at COPE Health Solutions?
I am excited about contributing to the development of a workforce that is reflective of the ethnic, cultural and social status of patients in the health care system today. I truly believe that part of accepting responsibility for your health status is in knowing that you have appropriate mechanisms of support in place that allow you to be successful. I am appreciative for the opportunity to refine an offering that is so critical to system transformation and population health management. Our ability to influence how the connection between health and home is coordinated from a system-wide perspective and train resources to support self-management external to the inpatient setting is a major component of improving quality and decreasing costs.

What are your thoughts on transforming health care?
I love that health care is one of few industries that is always in the process of transforming. Transformation that is finally learning to acknowledge the needs of vulnerable populations, recognizing the psychosocial, physiological and economic impact on health status and well-being, makes me excited that we have real potential to make an impact. In the past, I have been troubled by the fact that we, on a grand scale were trying to manage diseases as different slices of a whole person instead of looking at the whole person. Now that we are amending our approaches to focus on wellness, empowering the patient, providing system navigation tools and resources – including those that give the patient some responsibility for their health, we just might move the needle further than we have in the past.

What is your specialty in health care management and what are your thoughts on it?
I’ve found that we sometimes try to provide the solution before we really understand the problem, understand the population, system and their dynamics. I approach opportunities from a clinical stand point, which allows me to leverage a distinct process of evaluation of needs at both a strategic and operational level. Building relevant systems that support individuals through transitions of care and empower them to understand, manage and use those resources appropriately is critical to the success of improvements in outcomes at both the system and population level. Understanding that the same small percent of the chronically ill population that have historically driven costs still has non-clinical un-met needs will be a major part of system transformation.