The History of the Future

The New York Times tells us that the U.S. automakers are back to profitability and seem to have a bright future. Good news, of course. Now that the trend toward success is becoming evident, let’s take stock of the lessons of what has been a great American tragedy.

I recently participated in a UBT fair celebrating the work of the the South Bay Medical Center’s high performing unit based teams in Southern California. I came away acutely impressed by the contribution employees are making to health of the community through unit-based teams. I was also struck by how much richer that commitment made their work lives.

In 1965, President Johnson said Medicare proved that “the vitality of our democracy can shape the oldest of our values to the needs and obligations of today.” 

There are important days to mark in our lives. I think the 45^th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare is one of them, July 30^th, 2010.

If you haven’t heard already, you will be hearing a great deal about “Quality Ratings of Medicare Advantage Plans.”

The most significant feature of these quality ratings is the potential for bonuses to be paid to health plans that meet high quality standards. Medicare Advantage accounts for 10% of all Kaiser Permanente business. So what is this all about? Why should frontline Kaiser Permanente union members, physicians, and managers care about this?

These are the kinds of headlines we need to see more of! Headlines that really catch the eye and make people put down their morning coffee, gaze out the window, and ask…“what the hell is going on?” 

President Obama appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week.

Recently, I wrote about the collective grief that we all share as we watch the disaster pollute our precious Gulf of Mexico and everything in it. Today, I want to share some ideas about how such disasters can and must be prevented. Our important goal in Kaiser Permanente to create a continuous learning organization rests on those strategies for prevention.

I’ve been away from the blog desk.

Not really.

Too much to absorb; writing seemed to be irrelevant somehow. Observing, reflecting, making notes, all seemed more important, more respectful of the occurrences in our world.

It really is about the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

All the innovation we need is already here:  how do we put it to best use?

We’ve all heard the term: “death by initiative.”  What does this mean?

No doubt that a recent article in the Economist will broaden the appeal of the Kaiser Permanente’s model of care delivery and financing to a wide audience. This is critically important as the regulatory implementation of the new health care reform law is getting under way in earnest.