Over the years, foundations have supported commissions to investigate key health policy issues. Feeling the time is ripe for such leadership, we at The Commonwealth Fund have established a Commission on a High Performance Health System The Commission has identified 10 core values of high performance:
Long, healthy, and productive lives: Americans want the opportunity to be healthy and productive.
The right care: Research shows that Americans receive recommended care just over half the time.[1]
Coordinated care over time: Americans are more likely than patients elsewhere to report duplication of tests.[2]
Safe care: Despite improvements, we have a long way to go to ensure that we “do no harm.[3]”
Patient-centered care: Care needs to be organized around patients' preferences.[4]
Efficient, high-value care: We spend far more on healthcare than any other country, but we don't get better results.[2]
Universal participation: We're the only industrialized nation without universal coverage.
Affordable care: High costs and inadequate coverage undermine our financial security.[5]
Equitable care: There are widespread disparities related to income, race, or ethnicity.[6]
System innovation and capacity to improve: We can do better. We have the dedicated professionals, technology, research, and ingenuity to improve.
These are ambitious goals, but it's not asking too much to transform the US health system into the high-performance model we all want – and already pay for.
That's my opinion. I'm Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund.
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References
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