Measurably improved performance.
American medicine faces a crisis not only of cost but also of quality. Yet the biggest changes have focused primarily on who should pay for care while efforts to improve the care itself have sometimes taken a back seat. The result? A financially-driven approach that the public neither likes nor understands.

At its current rate of growth, health care spending could consume nearly half of U.S. GDP by mid-century.
—Source: “The Hidden Price Tag for Health Care,” by Daniel Akst, New York Times, December, 2004

There is a better way to improve the quality of care. And it’s being done everyday at Accountable Physician Practices.

When teams of health professionals share resources and patient knowledge, it becomes far easier to know what works best. Doctors have the right technology and greater support to improve performance. Care —not cost—drives health decisions. Better medicine means better health care outcomes and better lives, creating greater value for everyone.

• A recent survey indicated that doctors in large group practices are more likely to have access to practice-wide data and receive quality-of-care information. According to the researchers, doctors in large groups may have greater access to capital and thus be in a better position to implement both quality measurement and quality improvement.
—Source: “Measure, Learn and Improve: Physicians’ Involvement in Quality Improvement,” Audet, Doty, Shamasdin and Schoenbaum, Health Affairs, May, 2005

• In a study identifying the benefits of and barriers to large medical group practice, groups of at least moderate size were identified with the advantages of being able to monitor clinical performance, create organized processes to proactively improve care, implement clinical protocols and serve as units of analysis for which statistically reliable measurements of quality can be made.
—Source: “Benefits of and Barriers to Large Medical Group Practice in the United States,” Casalino, Devers, Lake, Reed and Stoddard, Archives of Internal Medicine, September, 2003

We have the ability. Together, we can make health care work better.

“Obama Visits Clinic Known for Quality Care, Controlling Costs,” by David Brown, The Washington Post, July 23, 2009

The Post takes a more in-depth look at The Cleveland Clinic, a CAPP medical group, that was touted by President Obama as a model of health care efficiency and quality.

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“Yes, models for cost-efficient health care do exist,” by Jim Landers, The Dallas Morning News, July 28, 2009

CAPP group Scott & White is featured in this article that reviews some of the Dartmouth findings on organizations that can curb health care costs.

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“Atul Gawande: The Cost Conundrum Redux,” by Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, June 23, 2009.

Gawande responds to the skeptics of his highly publicized New Yorker article.

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“The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care,” by Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, June 01, 2009

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