Overview
Group Health Cooperative (GHC) is a nonprofit, consumer-governed health care organization serving 580,000 members in Washington State and Idaho through an integrated multispecialty group practice and a network of community providers. Integrated financing and delivery—supported by a partnership between health plan administrators and medical group physicians—enable GHC to launch innovations and organize services in ways that make the most sense operationally and clinically. Exemplifying this approach is GHC's implementation of a patient-centered medical home model of primary care that enhances the roles of a multidisciplinary care team and uses electronic health records to deliver proactive, coordinated care. Information technology is a key to improving patients' communication with their care team, engaging them in evidence-based care, and reducing fragmentation of services. GHC is using "lean" techniques to involve care teams and other frontline staff in standardizing their work, an approach that can likely be expanded to include other organizations.
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This study was based on publicly available information and self-reported data provided by the case study institution(s). The aim of Commonwealth Fund–sponsored case studies of this type is to identify institutions that have achieved results indicating high performance in a particular area of interest, have undertaken innovations designed to reach higher performance, or exemplify attributes that can foster high performance. The studies are intended to enable other institutions to draw lessons from the studied institutions' experience that will be helpful in their own efforts to become high performers. Even the best-performing organizations may fall short in some areas or make mistakes—emphasizing the need for systematic approaches to improve quality and prevent harm to patients and staff. The Commonwealth Fund is not an accreditor of health care organizations or systems, and the inclusion of an institution in the Fund's case study series is not an endorsement by the Fund for receipt of health care from the institution.