Speaking at the National Press Club last week, Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese listed several attributes of organizations that deliver  what he considers to be “high-value care.” The Health Affairs blog recounts his message:

  • patient-centric cultures
  • high levels of physician engagement in leadership and change
  • high levels of teamwork, collaboration, and coordinated care
  • more “connectivity” and sharing of electronic medical records and information
  • use of “the science of health care delivery” meaning systematically looking at how patients flow through an organization in order to reduce waste and standardize processes to reduce errors.

He also offered an incremental approach to move all health care providers in that direction:

Let’s set a goal that in three years Medicare is paying for value. In those three years, let’s create a process where we define what we mean by value. We start setting up the metrics — the outcomes, safety, and service compared to the cost – and let’s start being transparent about where everybody is on that scorecard.