Transforming Health, Care & Costs for Patients with IBDWhat if other industries worked like health care? In "Best Care at Lower Cost", the Institute of Medicine parodied several common industries by looking at them through the lens of health care. This is what they saw.
If _____ were like health care...
Banking - ATM transactions would take not seconds but perhaps days or longer as a result of unavailable or misplaced records.
Home Building - carpenters, electricians and plumbers each would work with different blueprints, with very little coordination.
Shopping - product prices would not be posted, and the price charged would vary within the same store, depending on the source of payment.
Automobile Manufacturing - warranties would not exist for cars that require manufacturers to pay for defects. As a result, few factories would monitor and improve production line performance and product quality.
Airline Travel - each pilot would be free to design his or her own preflight safety check, or not to perform one at all.
As these anecdotes were delivered by Dr. Richard Colletti during opening remarks at the ImproveCareNow Learning Session, the sound of laughter rippled through the audience. It is almost comical to apply the health care system's shortcomings to other industries because they simply would not be tolerated anyplace else. So why do we tolerate them when it comes to our health? Some would argue it is because we don't know to expect anything different or better.
Some of the challenges a patient faces in the current health care system include lost records, mixed-up lab reports, missed or unnecessary tests, non-existent care-coordination, unpredictable and uncontrolled costs, fee for service instead of pay for performance (i.e., quantity over quality), and low reliability on critical safety measures. The stakes for a patient living with a chronic illness are even higher since they are frequent fliers in the health care system. There are some who have snapped out of the health care torpor. These are the clinicians, researchers, patients and families who are expecting better, demanding more and working tirelessly to transform the system.
ImproveCareNow, described by Christopher B. Forrest, MD, PhD of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute as the "leading learning health system for children in the nation", is small in comparison to the whole health care system. This established network of 46 care centers has proven its capacity to transform patients' health and the care they receive. The network plans to investigate the impact on cost of delivering the best quality care to pediatric patients with IBD.
ImproveCareNow does not choose to focus on new tests or treatments for IBD. Instead, the network focuses on quality improvement science and collaboration between clinicians, researchers, patients and families. The network has demonstrated its ability to test, discover and spread innovative new techniques that enable participants to systematically elevate the quality and success of the pediatric IBD care they deliver. It is my hope that the future of health care is reflected in the work of learning health networks such as ImproveCareNow.
ImproveCareNow recently held their annual strategic planning meeting where leadership and key stakeholders revised and improved the purpose statement and set relevant goals and initiatives for the Network to focus on in the upcoming year. Review the ImproveCareNow purpose statement, strategic goals and new strategic initiatives.
About the author: Sarah Nocito is the Network Development Coordinator for ImproveCareNow. She manages communications for the Network, and occasionally contributes articles and posts. Sarah works in the National Office of ImproveCareNow, located in Burlington, VT.
