After months of griping about what needs fixing in healthcare, I'd like to point out a few encouraging signs that healthcare in America is on the right path.
In El Paso, Texas, Sierra Medical Center opened the first urgent care facility run by a hospital in its area. It will take walk-in patients, and treat everything from coughs and colds to minor emergencies that require stitches.
CEO Edmundo Castaneda told El Paso Inc. that it was a way to reach a fast-growing, underserved population. It's a refreshing example of how hospitals can serve more people in need without reverting to their common fallback position of expanding.
Another example of boundary breaking that reflects forward-thinking in how healthcare is delivered comes courtesy of Chaska, Minn., where a new medical center opened this month. It consists of an ER, and urgent-care and specialty clinics. No hospital, though.
"There's no need for a hospital," Robert Stevens, president and CEO of Ridgeview Medical Center, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Ridgeview owns and operates the center.
What's great about this set-up is that a consumer may not know whether urgent care or ER care is more appropriate. "Now you can walk in here and they make that decision for you," said Chaska Mayor Mark Windschitl.
That's a far cry from what usually happens at America's emergency rooms, which treat 100 million patients each year who could have gotten the care they needed elsewhere--both quicker and cheaper. But what hospital ER is going to turn patients away when patients equal money?
MinuteClinic provides a third example of forward thinking. The retail clinic giant has been collaborating with health systems via formal affiliations with the likes of Cleveland Clinic, Allina Hospitals & Clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Catholic HealthCare West in Arizona and Nevada. Part of the relationship involves integrated EHR systems and shared medical directors.
What I like about these three examples is that at least one element of each disrupts the traditional models of healthcare, which assume hospitals and physician practices are the main means of delivering care. We seem to be evolving beyond that for certain kinds of conditions where the diagnosis and treatment are clear cut.
In each case, walls have fallen and traditional rivals find themselves on the same side. Lines in the sand are erased. Instead of fearing competition from urgent care, a hospital runs an urgent care facility. An ER passes along patients to a nearby urgent care facility. A retail clinic benefits from formal ties to health systems.
- Sandra