Integrated practice units at heart of redesigned health system: Harvard prof Michael E. Porter

How to restructure the health care delivery system to maximize the value for patients is discussed in this major article by Harvard Professor Michael Porter and Dr. Thomas Lee, published in Harvard Business Review.  The value agenda that they propose has these parts:

1. Organization into integrated practice units (that are built around a medical condition or related conditions)
2. Measurement of costs and outcomes for each patient (and making sure that the outcomes are ones that matter to the patients)
3. Moving to bundled payments for care systems
4. Continuing the movement to integrated care delivery (and concentrate volume in fewer locations)
5. Expansion of geographic reach
6. Enable the above components with an information technology platform.

This is a significant article.

Source: Porter, M.E., and Lee, T.H.  The strategy that will fix health care: providers must lead the way in making value the overarching goal.  Harvard Business Review;91(10):50-64, 66, 68, 70, Oct. 2013.  Click here for the publisher’s website: http://hbr.org/magazine  Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2003, rc@aha.org