With survey data showing public dissatisfaction with the health care system overall (see above), The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System released a report outlining what an ideally organized U.S. health care system would look like.
Organizing the U.S. Health Care Delivery System for High Performance describes strategies that could create an organized, efficient health care system while simultaneously improving care and cutting costs. Specifically, it calls for:
- Payment reform to ensure that health care providers and hospitals are paid for delivering high-quality, patient-centered, coordinated care
- Patient incentives that encourage people to go to the health care professionals and institutions that provide the most efficient, highest-quality care
- Regulatory changes to remove barriers that prevent physicians from sharing information that is essential for well-coordinated care and safe transitions for patients
- Accreditation of providers and health systems based on six attributes of an ideal health care system
- Provider training on how to deliver team-based care
- Government infrastructure support—for example, to aid the adoption of health information technology or performance improvement activities
- Use of health information technology—providers should be required to implement and use electronic health records within five years.
"There is no one policy or practice that will make our health care system run like an efficient, well-oiled machine," says James J. Mongan, M.D., who chairs the Commission and is the CEO of Partners HealthCare System in Boston. "This is going to take strong national leadership and a commitment from all of the players in our health care system."