Despite the controversy and negativity about our healthcare system of late, we seem to have come to the realization that healthcare is indeed about the patient and that delivery systems should be designed or redesigned to suit that purpose. In the past, systems in hospitals and offices tended to be more provider-centric than patient-centric, features that contributed to frustrations such as long wait times, care fragmentation and low patient satisfaction.
In an era when cost control is of paramount concern, value in medical care has taken on a new emphasis and definition. Improving the value of healthcare delivery is driven by the need to contain costs in a marketplace where patients are demanding better access quality. Work toward the attainment of improved value has also led to the development of new and innovative models of healthcare delivery, such as integrated networks. Such systems are often put forth as models for other practices to emulate. However, even these can be difficult to replicate in other systems.1 Another example of novel care models is the patient-centered healthcare home, a concept that has gained attention in part due to its inclusion in healthcare reform.
Providing increased value in healthcare delivery is a challenge. Barriers include wide differences in structure, resources and culture among medical practices and delivery models.1 No single model has emerged as superior.
It has also proven to be difficult to transfer successful models that work in one system to another; regional differences seem to play a role.
(Click image to view larger photo.)
Nonetheless, one expert has identified four habits that characterize high-value providers and organizations (see box).1
These habits stand out as prominent attributes of successful models. Key to the effective functioning of new models of care delivery is the emphasis on teams.2
Team at the Center
In healthcare delivery, it is now nearly universal that teams are organized and established for meeting specific needs within delivery systems (habit 1). Such approaches represent a departure from the traditional provider-focused structures of care in which the physician is the dominant decision-making provider. In newer models, the team - particularly in primary care and ambulatory settings - comprises physicians, PAs and NPs.
In such care models, NPs and PAs are full participants in the design of system and decisions related to patient flow, the establishment of essential diagnostic and management criteria, and the development of clinical support systems. Moreover, care delivery is specific and planned. In such systems, operational decisions are defined.
Another important element that is part of habit 1 is shared decision making. The inclusion of patients in the determination of therapeutic decisions or the design of systems that take into consideration patient preferences and choices represents another progressive step in care delivery.
Habits 3 and 4 are hallmark characteristics of successful health systems and practices and are interrelated.
The desire to improve system performance and effectiveness, along with the institution of groups to measure and monitor such parameters, is a practice drawn from the business and management worlds. Organizations that embrace these concepts go beyond mere reporting of measurements.
They form self-evaluation units to apply quality, efficiency and value measures to clinical processes. They refine their systems constantly.1
Setting the Standard
NPs and PAs are a significant part of the transition to new models of healthcare delivery. Their presence in the workforce in staffing novel and emerging healthcare models of care is now standard or soon will be.
1. Bohmer RM. The four habits of high-value health care organizations. N Engl J Med. 2011;365(22):2045-2047.
2. Lee TH. Care redesign - A path forward for providers. N Engl J Med. 2012;367(5):466-472.
James F. Cawley is a physician assistant who is a professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health in the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is the 2011 recipient of the Eugene A. Stead Jr. Award of Achievement from the American Academy of Physician Assistants.