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Do you think that health care should be safe, effective and efficient?

Are you concerned about the quality of health care that patients receive for the money spent?

Are you frustrated with health care “system” roadblocks that make it hard for patients to be as healthy as possible?

Do you wish you had useful comparisons of effective care in the region to help you make health care decisions?

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then you and your organization should join the Puget Sound Health Alliance.

Share information with others in your organization, by circulating these two short documents explaining the value and benefits of joining the Alliance.

Why Join the Puget Sound Health Alliance? (PDF)

Benefits of Participating in the Puget Sound Health Alliance (PDF)

By itself, no single employer, physician group, hospital, community group, health plan or individual can create the impact needed to improve the quality of care (reduce misuse, overuse and underuse), decrease waste and improve affordability of health care in this region. Simply said, working together to create a shared vision around what works (based on clinical expertise) then aligning expectations and incentives is vital to improving value in health care.

Improving the quality and reducing the cost of care is a regional problem that requires everyone working together on the solution. A May 2004 RAND study of the health care delivered to individuals in twelve cities in the United States found that in the Seattle area, our health care system failed to provide recommended standards of care 41% of the time. In other words, 40% of the time, the care was misused, overused or underused when compared to evidence-based standards of care that works.

This is not a criticism of our medical professionals. The United States has the best trained physicians and other health professionals in the world, with access to arguably the best technology and research in the world. Rather, the inefficiency and problems with quality and value in the American health care system are indictments of the complexity, duplication, inconsistency, cumbersome financing, and fragmented delivery “system” in which health care professionals must provide services.

The misalignment of strategies and incentives in the current health care system here in the Puget Sound region can be remedied if a significant number of employers, physicians and other health professionals, health plans and patients or consumers agree to:

• Work together to define quality care
• Share information to identify where improvement is needed
• Collaborate to align incentives to reward quality and efficiency
• Change behaviors to improve quality and efficiency, and promote good health
• Shift purchasing by employers and consumers toward higher value care
  
  

Join the Puget Sound Health Alliance to become a part of the health care solution.