The health care industry’s great obligation, its moral imperative, is to help improve the well-being of people. The opportunity to rally employees around improving health for patients—from our families and friends to complete strangers—is unique to the health care industry.
If the higher calling of improving patient health is so compelling, why do some say that health care is such a poorly managed industry? Why can’t we eliminate medical errors that cost lives? Why do we subtly distrust the health care system, as evidenced in part by an epidemic of second and third medical opinions?
The system’s shortcomings boil down to a lack of process discipline, a reluctance among health care providers to communicate and collaborate and a level of pride or arrogance that makes some health care professionals unwilling to consider new ways of doing things.
The offended will say, “But every patient is unique, with a different physiology and needs. We aren’t robots. This isn’t like manufacturing an automobile.” Full agreement, but complexity isn’t an acceptable excuse. And the answers are plain to see:
Give patients the same opportunity to manage their health that they have to manage their wealth. Develop and share quality data from health care providers so that patients can make informed decisions based on outcomes about where they will receive care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has begun to do this on a pilot basis. Poor performers will correct their problems or disappear, leaders will emerge and the quality of care will improve. Oh yes, malpractice lawsuits lurk nearby. But after the initial shakeout, if providers aren’t delivering health care of high quality, why should they be immune from paying the price?
Federally fund the development of an electronic patient medical record that provides confidential and secure historical patient information, available anywhere, anytime. Much as the Federal-Aid Highway Acts enabled construction of the interstate highway system in the last century, a way must be found to fund the information highway for health care. Such efforts will reduce total health care costs and increase patient satisfaction. Improvement in quality doesn’t cost more, it saves money.
Change the rules of engagement between physicians, providers, payers and patients to approaches based on reliable facts and data. Have you ever wondered why you often must provide the same personal information whenever you visit a new specialist or clinic? Or why lab tests that provide information for your doctor to make an informed diagnosis are generally ordered after your physical exam? Or why you don’t have access to your personal medical information?
We know more about the “medical histories” of our cars than about ourselves! We can blame providers all we want, but the fact is that most of us don’t have enough passion for our own health care to force needed changes in the system until it is too late—when we or a close family member or friend become seriously ill.
If we were talking about our finances, we wouldn’t accept inefficient processes that yield inconsistent service and mistakes. So what’s more important: your wealth or your health?
Kenneth W. Freeman is former chairman and CEO of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and an executive in residence at Columbia Business School.
