I'm Carolyn Clancy, and I am a deputy undersecretary for health, leading efforts to improve quality, safety, and integrity in the veterans' health care system.
The real question is, how together do we create a new normal? And we need to do that. We need to do that because we haven't always met patient's needs because the nature of patient's needs is changing. It's much more about chronic illness now and because quite honestly health care costs too much in this country. So I see Dr. Lee at the University of Utah as being really visionary in bringing people from around the country together to say, let's put our foot on the gas pedal.
What I think an ideal future health care system should look like is that it's all about the patients. Which may sound a little crazy or odd because after all, that's what the health system does – we take care of patients. But if we organize it, and we've started to do this, but we just have to keep pushing around patients' lives rather than around our routines.
So one of the questions one of my family members asked me is something like, "Why can't I have physical therapy on Friday nights? That's when I'm available." Now, I usually tell them something like, "I can't fix that for you from three states away today, so you're just going to have to deal."
But it is actually an important question. Why can't we organize ourselves in a way that makes it easier for patients? Because in the end, most people don't want to be patients. They want to get some help and then get back to real life. The nature of the business or in health care is very, very different. It used to be all about the hospital. That was the center of the universe and by the way, when a patient is in the hospital we're in charge.
Well, much, much more of it now is outpatient, which brings up the whole question of when do I have to come in face to face? When can’t I do it by telephone? When could a video visit be just as helpful? And that part is just wildly exciting.
I've learned at this summit about very exciting work going on in other health care systems, particularly work trying to figure out how do we get ahead of population health needs? How do we know ahead of time which patients are going to have problems if they are admitted to the hospital and then are discharged home? And frankly, how do we deal with that while they're in the hospital?
One system for example, actually sends people out to the patient’s home a day or two after discharge, which I think is just brilliant because that's when people get home and say, "Oh my gosh, I don't miss the noise of the hospital, but I actually don't know what to do now." And to have someone come into the house then it's wonderful.
One of the challenges with scaling up, and again, every system has this is, imagine in one clinic or one part of the hospital a dedicated doctor or other clinician is totally passionate about making change and making care better for patients. And they figure it out and they get everyone very excited and, by George, they do it. You know, they exceed all expectations, care for patients in that unit is just spectacular.
And then the question is, can other people do that or was that champion so vital that other people can't do it? Or, if it works in Boston, how is it going to work in Omaha, Nebraska or Salt Lake City, Utah or something like that? We can do this. I just don't think that we have focused enough on it. There's probably never been a more exciting time in health care.
We've known for decades if not centuries that health care is about science, but also the ability to customize and tailor that to the unique needs of individuals. That's what makes it wildly exciting. In the end, health care is about helping people get on with their lives so that they can go to work, be with their family, friends, whatever it is that gives them joy and pleasure in life.
