The PQA Quality Forum Webinar is a regular, recurring series on healthcare quality topics with a focus on medication use and medication services. It is a forum for educating and engaging with PQA members and quality-focused healthcare professionals.
The February 12 PQA Quality Forum Webinar welcomed Tammy Malm, PharmD, MPH, BCPS, PQA’s Director of Education, as she provided an overview of the PQA Social Determinants of Health Resource Guide Companion, which provides insights on key characteristics of effective partnerships among pharmacies, other health care organizations and community organizations to address SDOH barriers affecting medication access, use and outcomes.
The webinar was also joined by Kim Jay, BA, Training Manager and Senior Community Health Worker, and Consultant at the Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago, Ill. Jay shared real-world experiences and national initiatives demonstrating how community health workers (CHWs) can be integrated into the pharmacy workflow to bridge the gap between the pharmacy and the community.
Building the Foundation: PQA’s Social Determinants of Health Companion Guide
Tammy Malm, Director of Education at PQA, opened the webinar with an overview of the newly released Social Determinants of Health Resource Companion Guide. The guide builds on prior publications and features insights from 40 projects across diverse settings, including community pharmacies, health plans, and nonprofit organizations.
The companion guide organizes partnership success factors into two essential categories:
- Strategic approaches. These are the tangible skills that move projects forward. Examples include assembling a diverse, skilled team and defining measurable outcomes from the outset.
- Supporting attributes. These are the relational competencies that sustain impact. Mission alignment, adaptability, trust building, and clear communication are just as critical as operational planning.
The guide is publicly available, and PQA encourages you to share it with your network. PQA would love to hear how the guide is being utilized. Please provide feedback to Education@PQA.org.
The Heart of the Matter: Why Community Health Workers Matter
Kim Jay, BA, elevated the webinar by centering human experience. Drawing from guidance by the American Public Health Association, she described community health workers as trusted community members who bridge gaps between healthcare systems and the populations they serve. Community health workers are not an add-on to care. They are connectors.
Jay outlined some of the real-world barriers patients face every day:
- Cost and Access Barriers
- Health Literacy and Understanding
- Competing Life Priorities
- Trust and Relationship Gaps
- Emotional and Behavioral Factors
These challenges rarely surface in a traditional clinical encounter. Yet they directly influence medication adherence, follow-up, and outcomes.
Through powerful stories from home visits, Jay illustrated how seemingly small insights can transform care. Mold hidden beneath the carpet, contributing to asthma exacerbations. Medication instructions were misunderstood due to unclear terminology. Patients are silently struggling with embarrassment.
Community health workers uncover this context by meeting patients where they are, literally and figuratively. They build trust, clarify understanding, and ensure that life circumstances do not derail health goals.
The Power of Collaboration
Whether in pharmacy, health systems, payer organizations, or life sciences, integrating community health workers into program design ensures that strategies are informed by lived experience. Including them at the table from the beginning strengthens outreach, increases engagement, and ultimately improves outcomes.
From policy to practice, from the pharmacy counter to the patient’s living room, the message was unmistakable. Addressing social determinants of health requires partnership, humility, and intentional collaboration.
Jay highlighted compelling data showing that for every dollar invested in community health workers, organizations may realize up to eight dollars in downstream savings. Reduced emergency visits, improved chronic disease management, and better medication consistency all contribute to return on investment.
The February 12 PQA Quality Forum Webinar reminded us that better outcomes begin with better connections. When pharmacists, community health workers, and healthcare leaders align around a shared mission, barriers become bridges and patients move closer to the health they deserve.
You can listen to the full recording of this Quality Forum Webinar, a presentation with audience Q&A, on PQA’s YouTube channel. PQA members can access the presentation slides in the Member Resources Library.