David Bailey, MD, president and CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Nemours Children's Health System, says the value-based care model requires integration with other strategies to be successful.
In an op-ed for the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Bailey argues the value-based care approach "is necessary to significantly improve health outcomes" and lower costs for children with chronic illnesses and complex conditions. However, providers must augment the model with broad-based population health initiatives transcending the traditional boundaries of healthcare to successfully transition away from fee-for-service initiatives.
"For the past five years, we've committed to the philosophy and tools of the lean methodology, a structured approach to creating more value with fewer resources. Lean's core principles include value being defined by the [patient's] needs, aggressively removing waste from processes, improving processes continually and engaging employees actually doing the work to identify issues and provide solutions … [One example] is the virtual elimination of preadmission testing before the day of surgery — we're now able to accomplish all of the work on the day of surgery. This has resulted in fewer cancellations of surgical cases and improved patient satisfaction, with no adverse impact on surgical start times … The cumulative effect of changes such as this has been improved quality and safety, top-tier patient satisfaction and millions of dollars in annual cost savings. These savings partially mitigate the high costs associated with transitioning to a value-based system and are helping fund our ongoing population health efforts, which we believe are necessary to make VBC work."
To view the full op-ed, click here.
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