LAS VEGAS - As politicians work to reform the healthcare system, healthcare itself should be viewed as a "national resource," not simply as a business or a commodity, said a keynote speaker at last month's ANI 2008.
Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said viewing healthcare as a national resource would "change the debate" on reform and could be a way to span contending ideological positions in Congress and industry.
"The debate over reform will be highly charged in this political year," said Umbdenstock. "I'm not sure what the outcome will look like, and I won't compare one bill against another at this point. What we need to do is build a broader private sector coalition and think about what's best for patients and communities."
The AHA chief laid out two broad frameworks for reform that he said contained necessary principles around which all stakeholders should unite. The first framework he endorsed has been outlined in "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century," a 2001 report by the Institute of Medicine. The report delineated six "Aims for Improvement" for healthcare:
• Safety – Avoid injuries to patients from care that is intended to help them;
• Effectiveness – Match care to science and avoid the overuse of ineffective care and the underuse of effective care;
• Patient-Centeredness – Each patient's culture, social context and specific needs deserve respect, and the patient should play an active role in making decisions about her own care;
• Timeliness – Reduce waiting for both patients and those who give care;
• Efficiency – Reduce waste. The healthcare system should constantly seek to reduce the waste and the cost of supplies, equipment, space, capital, ideas, time and opportunities;
• Equity – Close racial and ethnic gaps in health status. Race, ethnicity, gender and income should not prevent anyone from receiving high-quality care.
Do you agree with Umbdenstock that it is possible for different interest groups and political parties to unite around a set of principles for the reform of the U.S. healthcare system? Are Umbdenstock's principles the right ones, or would you add or delete from his list? Email your thoughts to Associate Editor Richard Pizzi at richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com.