400 Hits–And More on Healthcare Delivery & Reform

Just a quick post tonight to let you know that, as I write, the blog just received its 400th hit (view).

Also, I’d like to remind you to check the links in yesterday’s post about some of the positive changes afoot in healthcare. These were submitted by my son, Matt Bond, grants and programs manager at DentaQuest Foundation in Boston. This organization has its pulse on current waves in healthcare delivery and management and is dedicated to ensuring high-quality oral care for all. Matt is also a graduate student in nonprofit management at the Institute for Public Service, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University in Boston and is very interested in and committed to the ethical aspects of healthcare, which he tells me is becoming more patient centered–meaning less burdensome for sick people and better managed by the industry. Hmmm.

These are the links he shared:

• Escape Fire Movie – The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) – Triple Aim: Better Health and Better Care at Lower Cost
• National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) – Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS.gov) – Accountable Care Organizations (ACO)

So many people have struggled to find their way through the healthcare maze that I can only hope these and other organizations will succeed in further changing the medical culture in this country–which is already drastically different from when I was young. I speak of culture here, and not politics and insurance, because I am in a better position to address the former than the latter.

However, I’d really like to hear what other people have to say about the relationship between healthcare providers and healthcare recipients, as well as about the huge insurance tangle we’re all facing. Over the past few decades, insurance has already had a significant impact on how people are treated, particularly related to hospital stays. Now, of course, we have the shifting sands of insurance shopping and its associated feelings of frustration and insecurity, especially if we are ill, aging, or unemployed (or, as in my case, all three). And I haven’t even mentioned litigation.

So, please feel free to leave comments and get the discussion going. And please do check out the links above.

More soon.