This summer, Hope Street Group is changing the status quo.  We are launching the first health care project of its kind, an eight-week initiative that brings together health care practitioners, industry professionals, entrepreneurs, policy-makers and members of the academic and research community to develop health care policies.  Together, we will be reinventing primary care to address resource shortages, reduce system-wide health care costs, and ensure that Americans have access to the quality health services they need most.

We are currently recruiting participants in this exciting initiative called “Policy 2.0: Using Open Innovation to Reinvent Primary Care.”  The initiative will focus on some of the most pressing, yet solvable, problems facing primary care.  If you accept this invitation, you will be able to connect your ideas with our distinguished group of advisors, including Dr Doug Henley (Executive Vice President/CEO, American Academy of Family Physicians), Peter Lee (Director of Delivery System Reform, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Health Reform) and Dr. Bob Kocher (Special Assistant to the President, National Economic Council)  - see the full list here:  http://www.hopestreetgroup.org/docs/DOC-1781.  You will be driving research-based recommendations - designed to lead real change - that will be presented to federal and state level policy-makers, industry, and the larger health care reform community.

To help this all come together, the project will use our online platform that has been used successfully by professionals in other fields to develop policy solutions.  Hope Street Group will select participants based on their experience and expertise, so if you would like to accept this invitation please send a brief statement of interest to Diana Harris at Diana@hopestreetgroup.org by July 1, 2010.  Only a limited number of individuals can participate in the project, so do not delay.

Hope Street Group is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for all Americans.  Our approach is simple: bring new voices to the public policy debate in innovative ways in order to develop solutions to pressing national problems.  To learn more about Hope Street Group, please visit: http://www.hopestreetgroup.org/community/healthcare and experience Policy 2.0, our customized online collaboration platform.

Or is it much needed innovation?

Many Americans are unable to obtain timely appointments for acute illnesses and often turn to urgent care and retail health clinics, and hospital emergency rooms to obtain the routine care they should be receiving from their primary care provider.

These settings often offer what primary care practices are unable to deliver— walk-in care requiring no appointment, convenient locations, and consumer-friendly hours. Urgent and retail health clinics are typically staffed by physician assistants or nurse practitioners and supervised remotely by doctors. This allows these clinics to offer lower fees, which is increasingly attractive to patients without insurance and those newly unemployed.

However, the upturn in patients utilizing urgent and retail health clinics often leads to increased fragmentation and uncoordinated medical care for patients, poor follow up after treatment, and in the event of more serious acute illnesses—a referral back to their primary care physician. Additionally, patients increasingly relying on emergency rooms has led to overcrowding and reduced availability for those who need emergency services most, and higher system-wide costs due to an upturn in hospital readmissions rates.

For a concise overview, check out Deloitte recently updated Retail Clinic Report.

Log in or register to post comments!