On Jan. 26, 2015, Sylvia M. Burwell, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, published an announcement in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Setting Value-Based Payment Goals—HHS Efforts to Improve U.S. Healthcare.”1 Included was a clear goal for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transition 85% of all Medicare payments […]
Read the headlines around the country about competitive ambulance bid processes and it sounds like a train wreck. Spokane, Wash., is considering reopening its bid process after community members questioned its fairness after only receiving one bid. The Alameda County, Calif., bid award resulted in a major lawsuit between bidders. Merced, Calif., had to start […]
For many Americans, the last few years have been a crash course in understanding the complex landscape that is our healthcare system. Regardless of your political leanings, it’s hard to deny that the current system is difficult for the average American to navigate. On a recent Saturday morning, I opened the Austin-American Statesman to a […]
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Breakthrough Collaborative Series Model is a method used to bring organizations together to learn and collaborate to make significant improvements in a specific topic area.1 This process was used in ambulance service in Massachusetts from 2009–2013 to improve prehospital stroke care.2 A key element of the method is to […]
It’s 4 a.m. and an engine company and medic unit is on the scene of a pediatric patient with a low-grade fever. The little girl is not in distress but the young mother wants her to be seen by a doctor at the emergency department (ED). Family encourages her to take the ambulance instead of […]
EMS systems have piloted programs for many years that use paramedics to address holes in the healthcare system. In recent years, and with the transformation of our healthcare system through reform, an increasing focus has been placed on programs using paramedic-based community health services. This is one of the most exciting developments in the industry […]
Healthcare as we know it is experiencing a transformation. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a key trigger, but momentum in the industry was already causing changes. Although cable news fixates on a few attributes that keep the left and the right pundits in a frenzy, the folks on the frontline have known […]
David M. Williams, PhD is a researcher and consultant at the international ambulance service consulting practice Medic Health (@Medic_Health / www.medichealth.com). He is also an improvement advisor with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is the lead prehospital emergency care faculty. He advises organizations to apply improvement science to improve patient access, enhance quality and reduce per capita cost.
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