WIHI - A Podcast from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Health & Fitness:Medicine
Date: February 9, 2012
Featuring:
Imagine this. You’re driving or walking or maybe even bicycling by your local hospital and you notice a big sign over the entrance that you’ve never seen before. Here’s what it says: “This hospital saved 5 Million Dollars in 2011 by improving patient care and reducing unnecessary procedures. We have returned the money to local employers, local unions, and the state.”
Sound preposterous? Hopefully not, because this is the kind of bold commitment and public declaration that Don Berwick and Gerry Shea would like everyone in health care to start thinking about, seriously. It’s just that urgent, they say, and they’ll explain why.
WIHI host Madge Kaplan welcomes Berwick and Shea to the program, fresh off Dr. Berwick’s 18 months implementing change at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and building on Gerry Shea’s extensive knowledge of quality improvement and the promise of better care and lower health care costs for working Americans.
The problem is, we’re nowhere near there yet, especially where costs are concerned, and both Berwick and Shea believe one of the reasons is that there’s still too much of a disconnect between what better use of health care services and improvement initiatives can achieve, and what health care payers (Medicare and Medicaid, employers, individuals, etc.) are able to reap in return. As Berwick puts it, “Payers aren’t seeing it yet,” and this means that anyone footing the bill, and that’s pretty much all of us, continues to be squeezed in ways that society can’t afford.
So, what can dedicated legions of health professionals, already deeply immersed in improvement work, do differently or better? Berwick started to lay this out on December 7, 2011, at IHI’s National Forum. Berwick and Shea both say that one area ripe for review is the conceptual and often actual way in which health care organizations separate their quality and “lean” strategies, when these should be one and the same. Implementing greater efficiencies has everything to do with safety and better care, the two say. Getting this right would speed things up and generate greater savings. The question then becomes, where should the money go?
WIHI: Highly Reliable Hospitals: The Work Ahead
WIHI: The Patient Will See You Now: New Technology for New Collaborations
WIHI: Have You Had "The Conversation"? Helping Loved Ones Discuss End-of-Life Preferences
WIHI: Removing Barriers to Care with Medical-Legal Partnerships
WIHI: Heard at the Forum: New Ideas and Learning from IHI's 23rd Annual National Forum
WIHI: Night Talks and Nocturnists: New Interventions for the Hospital at Night
WIHI: Health Literacy: New Skills for Health Professionals
WIHI: Organizing for Health: A Story from South Carolina
WIHI: Safety Net Hospitals: Untold Stories of Quality Transformation
WIHI: Family Caregiving, Caregivers, and Compassion
WIHI: Managing Medication Shortage: Best Practices for a Crisis
WIHI: Always Events: Raising Expectations for Patient Experience
WIHI: Payment Reform As We Speak
WIHI: Improving Health Care: The Global View
WIHI: New Models for Patients with Multiple Health and Social Needs
WIHI: Integrity On and Off the Page: A Discussion with JAMA’s (Departing) Editor-in-Chief
WIHI: Leading Across the Continuum
WIHI: Palliative Care = Quality Care
WIHI: The Power to Detect and Improve: Revisiting the IHI Global Trigger Tool and Adverse Events
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