Reengineering Service Delivery: Tinkering or redesign?

I am old enough to remember cast iron automobile engines, massive, performance driven by basics such as carburators, distributors and spark plugs. No computer assists, no electronic fuel injection and no computer to monitor and identify performance problems. If the engine ran rough, we adjusted fuel and air mixture.Today’s engines are smaller, and have more software/technology embedded than the first and second generation desktop computers.

So what does this have to do with health care? Until quite recently we tinkered with health care services delivery–a little tweak here and there and just like the old automobile engine we did just enough to keep the engine running smoothly.
Unlike the design evolution of the automobile we have not followed suit in the way we deliver and price health care services.

We need to take a new approach to health care services delivery. Our responsibility as a nation is to create a health care environment where care is provided in a team setting delivering comprehensive care — the quality of which is measured in terms of treatment outcomes tied to the patients’ return to health. It is an approach where provider compensation is tied to results and where patient clinical information is widely shared amongst all care givers involved in the patient’s treatment. The message to take away from the health care reform approved by Congress is this: reengineering the health care delivery system is necessary and here are some tools to work with.

Accountable Care Organizations, (ACO’s) are one of those tools. When done right ACO’s replace silo medicine with coordinated patient throughput, volume based reimbursment with outcomes-driven compensation and passive patient “doctors orders” adherence with active patient participation in treatment.

With the proper infrastructure, appropriate clinical protocols, value based compensation and decision support, ACOs can be successful long term.

Take the first step by deciding to redesign. Then contact us. We will help.

Resources:

Learn how Gorman Health Group can help you reengineer your health care delivery system.

Read more on ACO opportunities in our white paper on the topic.

Read about how three Gorman Health Group clients were approved by CMS to become Operating Accountable Care Organizations