Take another example, in pharmacy administration. By redesigning its outsourcing relationships, Sentara held the rate of drug cost increases to half the national trend while increasing pharmacy revenue by 26 percent. Best of all, say Sentara officials, the quality of life has improved dramatically. The next revolution in health care will not come from limiting patient access and squeezing providers, as HMOs and the federal government did during the 1990s. Instead, it will result from helping patients get better faster, cutting down on re-admissions and heading off unnecessary complications.
Healthy patients require less treatment.
Curing such woes as hospital errors, labor shortages, tight revenues and an aging population will require huge doses of innovation. Chris Bailey, senior vice president of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, doesn't expect the changes to occur overnight. Successful systems like Sentara, Inova and Carilion, he says, have been at it a long time. Healthcare is very complex, and you can't change cultures overnight. It takes steady, patient work and good leadership.