We Do Not Need New Vision, We Need New Eyes

This was the message sent and received at the well attended Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM) conference in San Antonio in late July. The keynote speaker, Joe Flower, gave an inspiring talk addressing the future of healthcare and what each of us, with fresh perspective, could do to affect a positive change in what can seem like an overwhelmingly dismal outlook.

Joe Flower, CEO of Imagine What If Inc. (www.imaginewhatif.com) started his discussion with some attention grabbing statistics. First, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that we will spend $2.4 trillion on healthcare in the United States in 2008 alone...a daunting amount to say the least. But the more troubling concern with our present system is that an estimated 30 percent of that $2.4 trillion is actually waste.

A Medicare study paralleled the amount spent on healthcare in the highest-cost geographical areas (New York, Boston, some parts of California) versus the amount spent in the lowest-cost areas (he cited Minnesota, specifically). The findings revealed that the difference in medical cost per condition varied by as much as 60 percent. And ultimately if the United States as a whole practiced medicine the way they do in low cost areas such as Minnesota, that Medicare savings would be an estimated 30 percent across the board.

These stats speak loudly enough on their own merit, only comparing the current system and the highest cost vs. lowest cost areas now. What if we found out what healthcare savings could be if we discovered the best, fastest, least expensive way to do every procedure?

So the question emerges, how do we do this now and what makes it more feasible in our environment today than in the past? Flower says the answer lies in the availability of data, or, what he refers to as “data transparency.” For example, we should be able to determine just what it costs to deal with common medical conditions, what the universal parts of the process are and how good medical professionals at dealing with them are.

This is happening at the same time customers (meaning patients, doctors, health plans and employers) will begin to demand the data and will select their facility based on the information available. Of course the net result is fierce competition and those that are selected are those that offer healthcare better, faster and cheaper, and can show it.

The great news for our community is that the outpatient facilities do offer it better, faster and cheaper. In a world where the consumer has access to any data attesting to procedure efficiency, the ambulatory surgery centers are the winners hands down.

This brings me to my reminder to join us at the today’s surgicenter conference at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas from Sept. 18 to 20. Let us tell you how to either open a new facility or expand your existing one into the most efficient model in your community. Explore the current political, regulatory and economical landscape with regard to not only the outpatient facilities, but the emerging urgent care market as well.

We very much look forward to bringing your questions and enthusiasm to our incomparable team of experts at the today’s surgicenter conference. And please look for me there, too, as I’d love to discuss not only your ideas about the future of healthcare, but also how we can transform those ideas from beyond vision to a new reality.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers!

Dana Armitstead

Publisher