CLEVELAND, Ohio-- Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove today released a book to address what the health system’s leader refers to as “a very negative national conversation” about healthcare in the United States.
“At its best, healthcare in the United States is the best in the world,” Cosgrove said in a phone interview Thursday about the book, “The Cleveland Clinic Way," published by McGraw Hill Education. “I think that this begins to point out a lot of the things that make it really superb, and points out opportunities to make it better.”
The 200-page book explains the formula behind the Clinic’s healthcare model— a model Cosgrove writes is “more effective, more humane, and, surprisingly, more affordable," and one that can and should be mimicked in healthcare organizations across the country.
Divided into eight chapters, the book highlights the Clinic’s group practice model, use of electronic health records to track patient data and outcomes, a focus on wellness over “sick care,” the consolidation of specialty services, and personalized medicine.
In 2009, President Barack Obama visited the Clinic, calling it a role model of healthcare delivery. Obama has since singled out other group practice health systems such as The Mayo Clinic for similar praise.
Cosgrove’s book features the work of many Clinic physicians as examples of how the healthcare model fosters innovation, quality patient care, and a focus on outcomes rather than physician income.
Dr. Heather Gornik, a cardiologist who specializes in treating a rare blood vessel condition called fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), is highlighted as an example of a doctor who isn’t constrained by the fee-for-service model used by solo-practice physicians, and is therefore free to spend more time with her patients.
The late vascular surgeon Roy Greenberg, who passed away in December at the age of 49 after a battle with cancer, was also featured prominently in a chapter on innovation. Greenberg, who was focused on treating aortic aneurysms and held more than 50 patents, was the 2012 recipient of the Clinic’s Sones Innovation award, which grants $50,000 to physicians and scientists for notable innovations.
There is only brief mention of the Affordable Care Act, to acknowledge what the CEO has said many times before—that the impact of the healthcare legislation is still largely an unknown, and that hospitals will continue to have to “do far more with less.”
Cosgrove does, however, remain optimistic.
“The conversation has been that American healthcare is broken and we’re in crisis, and that’s been going on for some time,” he said. “Why do people from all over the world who have the means come as fast as they can to the United States to get their healthcare? Because when it’s good, it’s at its best.”
"For the Cleveland Clinic and the nation, I'm optimistic."