Well Positioned

I just read an article on the four priority strategies for health systems for the future.  The significance is that at this week's WMHS Board Meeting, I will present my assessment of Future Scan 2012 - 2016.  The presentation includes my perspective on what trends we will see in health care over the next 4 to 5 years.  The four priorities fit very well with the presentation since they are four areas that we are heavily engaged in currently.  The four areas are as follows:  aligning hospitals, physicians and other providers along the care continuum; utilizing evidence based practices to improve quality and patient safety; improving efficiency; and developing integrated information systems. 

WMHS leadership, including the physicians on our Clinical Quality Council, is heavily engaged in delivering care in the most appropriate setting and not necessarily the acute care setting. The Council and our staff are also focused on enhancements to quality and safety as demonstrated through our dramatic improvement in core measure results. We have engaged our process engineers with our middle and senior management to reduce redundancy and better standardize our processes. Lastly, we are deploying electronic medical records software, electronic order entry, e-Prescribing and e-Clinical Works in physician practices.  It is nice to have reaffirmation from time to time that we are on the right track.