Annual Report
CHOICE check
"The doctors of the future will give no medicine but will interest
their patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause
and prevention of disease."
Thomas Edison
From Our President
CHOICE is a bit of an odd duck in that it's not your
typical model of a "network" -- but then CHOICE members aren't your typical
group of health care providers. We're experimenting with a collaborative
approach to transform the health care system in our region. With
continuously increasing pressures to do more with less reimbursement, a
natural tendency is for health care organizations to focus inward on ways to
cut costs and leverage better deals with health plans -- with strategic
questions centered around, "How can I keep as much of my share of the pie as
possible?"
CHOICE members have chosen a wiser path by asking, "How
can we plan together to reallocate the health care resources available; to
improve access to primary care; improve the care patients receive; and,
ultimately, improve the health status of the people who live in our
region?" In other words, we are committed to the belief that providing
health care is more than just a business.
In many ways, CHOICE is just starting to identify and
realize opportunities for regional collaboration. We are encouraged by
early success. We have learned over the last three years that collaboration
becomes a verb at the point where the relationships among regional providers
are strong enough to:
- actively participate without trying to control the
process;
- Share information and use it for the collective benefit
of all partners;
- take risks and make investments to achieve desired
future outcomes;
- make the changes necessary to better coordinate patient
care; and
- ask for help and give it to others to develop a strong
set of core competencies within a regional health system.
CHOICE is now at the point where members can fully
appreciate the value of relationships with each other. We have established
an ongoing forum to look at critical issues with regional importance and
take collaborative action. The work we are doing to reduce the number of
uninsured, improve the patient transfer process and improve the health
outcomes of uninsured diabetics is exciting and full of promise.
Over the next several years, one of our biggest challenges
will be to find additional avenues to financially sustain our regional
efforts. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Network development grant provided our seed money, and the continuation
grant we expect to be awarded this Fall will give us an additional financial
boost to see the benefits of our investment in the community. We're off and
swimming!
Sincerely,
Bob Appel
Administrator, Mason General Hospital
President, CHOICE Administrative Board
Mission
CHOICE Regional Health Network is a nonprofit consortium
of rural and urban hospitals, practitioners, public health, clinics, and
other health partners dedicated to improving the health of our community. We
define our community as the residents of Mason, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Lewis
and Thurston counties— Central Western Washington. Our members are dedicated
to improving the health of the people who live in our region. CHOICE meets
its mission through regional planning and action to develop a coordinated
system of patient care among multiple owners of different types of health
care organizations who choose to collaborate in the best interest of the
communities we serve.
Vision
CHOICE’s vision for an improved health system and a
healthier region takes into consideration the challenges of delivering care
and improving health outcomes in diverse communities, and within a rapidly
changing environment.
As CHOICE members, we have committed to collaboration in
the belief that the capacity, effectiveness, and efficiency of any
individual or single organization is greatly increased by providing an
opportunity for mutual education, sharing of expertise and systems, and
collective decision making and action.
CHOICE gets its strength by creating a forum where
organizations and health care professionals can break out of customary
institutional and geographic boundaries to explore and develop ways to
improve the health system. Through our participation in CHOICE, we have
overcome traditional barriers that might exist between entities with
multiple and autonomous sponsors in diverse geographic areas.
Through collaborative regional planning and coordinated
action, we will progress toward a future state of health care delivery
characterized by:
- Easier access to affordable services for people with
limited incomes;
- Improved service quality and coordination;
- Good patient outcomes and service effectiveness;
- Local delivery of quality services with a minimum of
duplication;
- Accountability to standards of achievement established
internally, by consumers, and broader community partners; and
- Collaboration between urban and rural health care
providers.
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