During recent weeks, I, along with many Americans, have followed the debates between the GOP Presidential candidates, lawmakers of both parties in Congress and the Sunday talk show pundits.  Everyone, it seems, uses quick and easy sound bites to distract attention away from real solutions to our challenges.  While that is certainly nothing new, the severity of the issues we face today is such that the times demand a different approach.   All Americans want real solutions to create a better future for themselves and their children.   This won’t happen overnight, but with a thoughtful plan, we will see progress over time.

In Illinois, we experience a microcosm of the national challenges… budget deficits, high unemployment, high number of uninsured and growth in Medicaid spending.  The drumbeat of simplistic sound bites call out:  “Medicaid spending needs to be reduced,” “hospitals cost too much,” “managed care is the answer,” “reform needs to happen now.”    It’s tempting to “take care of Medicaid” this spring, to adopt simplistic answers that give us the easy way out.

Just as the nation deserves more, so do the people of Illinois.   Health care is fundamental to each and every one of us.  Yes, it needs to be transformed and it will be.  But not overnight, not completely this year, or even in a year or two.  The people of Illinois deserve a thoughtful, informed plan to avoid reckless, uninformed decisions that can hurt people and unnecessarily reduce the jobs that the state desperately needs to hold onto.

If solutions were easy, they would have already been done.  Every statehouse across the country is having these debates.  The challenges are incredibly complex.  We need thoughtful, accurate analyses and multi-year transformational approaches.   For example, did you know that the growth in Illinois’ Medicaid spending is primarily due to annual enrollment increases of 6.4%?   Did you know that Illinois has the 7^th lowest per capita per Medicaid beneficiary spending in the country?  Let’s move away from sound bites and get to the substantive discussions.  

Stay tuned to this blog and follow me on Twitter. It is time for thoughtful leadership. Our health depends on it.

IHA and its 200 member hospitals and health systems firmly believe in providing the highest level of safe, quality care to every patient. Whenever a serious event is discovered, hospitals initiate internal investigations, thoroughly analyzing the problem and determining what systems or processes need improvement to prevent future occurrences.

Serious complaints should be investigated. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services usually pays for an investigation if the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) communicates the case’s severity. In addition to IDPH, many other state agencies, as well as accrediting organizations such as the Joint Commission, conduct investigations of serious events at hospitals. Health care is an extremely regulated sector, second only to nuclear power plants.

IHA and hospitals strongly supported enactment of the state’s Adverse Health Care Events Reporting Law in 2005, requiring hospitals to report serious events, conduct root cause analyses and implement corrective action plans if necessary. Hospitals did not wait for the law’s implementation, but on their own, have been performing root cause analyses and implementing corrective plans when an incident occurs.

IHA’s Quality Care Institute offers safety and quality initiatives for hospitals including Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships (in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois) and Raising the Bar—a multi-year initiative—to substantially reduce readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions and infections.

In addition, the Midwest Alliance for Patient Safety, a statewide Patient Safety Organization established by IHA and the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council with 71 participating hospitals, is working to improve patient care and outcomes through the sharing and evaluation of clinical experiences.

Illinois’ hospitals are unceasing in their commitment to providing the safest, highest quality care. IHA and its members look forward to a continued partnership with the state to ensure the safety and care of every patient in Illinois.

“The goal isn’t to live forever, but to create something that will.” That’s my favorite quote by the late Steve Jobs, who was passionate about design, function and communication. For those of us who are passionate about health care, these are three keys to keep in mind as the transformation of our nation’s health care system continues.

Design: Apple and design were synonymous. Jobs showed better than anyone the importance of strategic, innovative design as he led the transformation of personal computing from complexity to simplicity. Design has emerged as a critical component as hospitals increase their focus on patient-centered care in every aspect of health care—from evidence-based systems of care to patient rooms renovated for better use from the patient perspective.

Function: Jobs knew good looks weren’t enough for his products, any more than a beautiful patient room automatically increases the quality of care. The Apple operating system from the onset created easy navigation among applications that was clear and user-friendly. The fundamental function of our health care system hasn’t changed—the care and treatment of the ill and injured—but how we care for patients has changed, and continues to do so. If a design improvement does not improve patient care, it is not an improvement.

Communication: From its very beginnings, the Apple platform’s intuitive, easy-to-understand icons created a personal link and passion between individuals and their computers that had never existed before. Clear communication between physicians, health care staff and patients is not only important but essential—in the emergency department, within the operating room or at the bedside.

Steve Jobs’ greatest success was in designing technically complex products that virtually anyone could use, inspiring passion along the way. As health care leaders, we have the same opportunity as Jobs to redesign and “re-imagine” the complex world of health care for our patients as we continue to transform to a new model of health care delivery.

None of us will live forever. But we have an extraordinary opportunity to create a lasting legacy as we design a health care system for the future.

Thanks, Steve.