This past March, I was looking forward to giving a keynote at the Arizona Technology Council. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. COVID happened. But in the process of figuring out what I was going to talk about during my keynote, I came up with an idea and I wanted to share it. It’s the idea of how to measure value in health care delivery, because might as well go big or go home, right? The metrics that we use to measure value is critical, and not just because what gets measured gets managed. It’s because American health care is the biggest most impressive display of game theory anyone anywhere has ever seen. I am not easily impressed, and I have to say that I am unfailingly and frequently more than impressed by the cognitive prowess and sheer determination among some parties to game the system and reach as much profit as possible at the expense of patients and taxpayers. So, coming up with the right metrics is paramount. The metrics have to be unimpeachable; they have to be immune to those who have every intention of twisting them against their spirit.
For more information, go to aventriahealth.com.
When not hosting the show, Stacey is co-president of Aventria Health Group, a marketing agency and consultancy. Aventria specializes in helping pharmaceutical, employer, pharmacy, and health system clients improve patient outcomes by creating and leveraging collaborations with other health care organizations. For more than 20 years, Stacey has innovated better-coordinated health solutions benefiting all stakeholders and, most of all, the patient.
01:28 Health care profiteering and the halo effect.
02:16 Dr. Robert Pearl’s book, Mistreated.
02:27 “If there’s money on the table, it’s really hard to not take it.”
02:42 How Stacey came up with her first metric.
04:31 The impact of caring for the patient on patient outcomes.
06:09 The quadruple aim.
06:50 “An endgame of nouns” vs “the verbs which are going to get us there.”
07:19 How are we helping patients and providers?
09:02 Making the touchstone “helping physicians help patients.”
09:50 Gary Price, MD, on the Healthcare Strategies podcast from Xtelligent Media.
10:36 Danielle Ofri, MD, at danielleofri.com.
12:04 Eric Topol, MD, and “the gift of time.”
12:36 The first metric: optimizing time for patients.
14:31 Financial toxicity in health care.
15:24 Marty Makary, MD, MPH, author of The Price We Pay.
17:11 Two metrics: optimal time with patients and reduction of cost for patients.