Amidst the Seemingly Constant and Fruitless Rancor

Amidst the seemingly constant and fruitless rancor which came to typify the national debate regarding health care reform certain truths were ultimately laid bare. Through revelations of widespread waste and mismanagement by hospitals and pervasive political lobbying by pharmaceutical conglomerates, America was forced to confront the disturbing reality that its health care system had become irrevocably broken. Today's medical community is defined by a fragmented and ineffective structure in which the ever rising costs of healthcare stand in stark contrast to the diminished and compromised quality of the care being provided. With the ranks of those who require regular medical attention swelling at an exponential rate many members of the medical profession agree that new modalities are needed to sufficiently adapt the healthcare system. As observed in the 10th edition of Jonas and Kovner's Health Care Delivery in the United States, "organized health care delivery" in which "care providers have established relationships and mechanisms for communicating and working to coordinate patient care across health conditions, services, and care settings over time" (Kovner, Knickman & Weisfeld, 2011) is the most effective and efficient healthcare system for the 21st century.

Generally, the most prominent organized health care delivery plans "range from fully integrated delivery systems (IDSs) that provide a full scope of health care services and insurance coverage to multispecialty physician group practices (MSGPs)" (Kovner, Knickman & Weisfeld, 2011). They can, however, also include a private network of independent providers such as a physician-hospital organization" or a "government-facilitated networks of independent providers" but for the sake of this forum the discussion will be confined to a prominent IDS known as the Henry Ford Health System. This non-profit integrated health system was founded in 1915 and is operates a network of seven hospitals from its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. In August of 2008, The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System's released a report entitled Organizing the U.S. Health Care Delivery System for High Performance. This report highlighted six critical attributes which form the ideal health care delivery system, "Information Continuity, Care Coordination and Transitions, System Accountability, Peer Review and Teamwork for High-Value Care, Continuous Innovation and Easy Access to Appropriate Care" while also citing the Henry Ford Health System as an exemplar of these attributes.

The Henry Ford Health System manages to meet the criteria for an ideal health care delivery system by continuously striving to uphold the highest of standards. The call for information continuity is met by standardizing the use of "an electronic health record (EHR)" which "is shared across all group-practice sites, and is viewable by external physicians for common patients" (Kovner, Knickman & Weisfeld, 2011). Care coordination and effectively transitioning patients from inpatient to outpatient care is a hallmark of all successful integrated delivery systems and the Henry Ford Health System prides itself on its "advanced medical home, with redesigned care processes & #8230; to meet stratified patient-population needs" (Kovner, Knickman & Weisfeld, 2011). Care is coordinated among multiple providers and transitions across care settings are actively managed. The system accountability of Henry Ford Health Systems is displayed through point-of-care testing services which provide immediate feedback to both providers and patients. The system relies on a strenuous process of continual peer review and collaborative teamwork among its providers, including nurses and other members of the health care team, to reliably deliver high-quality, high-value healthcare. Patients also benefit immensely from the continuous innovation and learning-dependent environment which is fostered in order to improve the quality and value of healthcare delivery. Finally, member hospitals within the Henry Ford Health System provide patients with appropriate care and information at all hours in an easily accessible manner, there are multiple points of entry to the system, and its providers are culturally competent and responsive to patients' needs.