ANNUAL REPORT 2007: Thoughts on Health Care Reform
By Hugh Straley, MD, Medical Director,
Group Health Cooperative
(Retired June 2008)
America's health care crisis is the Northwest's health care crisis. What's wrong nationally is just as wrong here. Yet there's also hope that innovations from the Northwest might make a difference nationally.
In 2004 — inspired by King County Executive Ron Sims and other community leaders — a collection of employers, physicians, hospitals, patients, health plans, and others formed the nonprofit Puget Sound Health Alliance to identify local problems and craft solutions. To help achieve these goals, the partnership decided it would regularly assess the quality of health care in the region. It developed, for the first time, a rigorous "apples-to-apples" performance report card, comparing care across the Puget Sound region. The first report, the Community Checkup, included 14 major provider groups.
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This level of transparency bodes well for the Northwest, and especially for Group Health's customers, members, and patients. In this first assessment of regional health care quality, released in early 2008, Group Health performs exceptionally well. How well? I urge you to visit the Alliance Web page and see the results for yourself.
That's not to say we don't have space for improvement; there's much we can do better. The stories my peers have shared here in the pages of this report highlight some of these efforts. But there is increasing evidence that supports what I've long believed: Group Health's integrated system gives us an advantage when it comes to delivering quality care in today's fragmented marketplace. Let me share an example from my experience here as an oncologist.
Years ago a patient came to my office with a recurrent mass in his neck. I took a sample, then put it under a microscope down the hall in the laboratory, and made the diagnosis with the pathologist. My patient was in a wheelchair, so I wheeled him to nearby Radiology, where we got an X-ray, and then I wheeled him around the corner and he started radiation therapy. The entire process took two hours. As I was getting him the care he needed so quickly, so easily, I thought, "This is why I'm at Group Health."
When I came here 29 years ago, my colleagues in private practice gave me funny looks and said, "Group Health? You'll be back in a year." But I knew its history and its commitment to innovation and affordable, excellent care. Since then I have never been disappointed. Our reputation is growing, and our clinical expertise is better known than ever.
I'm so proud of what Group Health has become, and so excited about the leadership role this organization will play in the future of our region and our country.
"Group Health has systems in place that other organizations haven't fully developed yet, and so we should be top performers. The results of PSHA's Community Checkup show we're demonstrating our promise," says Straley, pictured left.
Hugh Straley, MD, retired in June 2008. At Group Heath for 29 years, he served as medical director for Group Health Cooperative and as president of Group Health Permanente, one of the largest multispecialty medical groups in Washington state. He also served as vice chair for the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a regional effort to improve health care quality and decrease costs. Michael Soman, MD, is now the president and chief medical executive for Group Health Permanente.
Check out the complete
Community Checkup report
Physicians, clinic leaders, patients, and employers joined to develop the Puget Sound Community Checkup, released in February 2008. The report establishes a baseline for understanding health care in our region and provides a foundation as we work to improve health care quality and affordability.
