Connecting with Your Community

In health care, we routinely inundate the public with indecipherable information.  We are notorious for acronyms, we use health-speak known to us, but no one else, the public doesn't understand their bills, they don't understand that physicians are independent and don't necessarily work for hospitals (although that trend is changing) and that hospitals need to better engage employers in our effort to drive value.  We need to do a better job of reaching out to the community and to those footing the bill for health care spending.  They need to know that payment reform has taken hold and change is upon us.  We need to educate them on value replacing volume,  that care doesn't necessarily need to be provided on an inpatient unit over a four-day period of time, what wellness initiatives exist for their employees and the criticality of quality in all that we do.