Jan. 31, 2008
Patients gain local treatment information with new Community Checkup report
Inaugural Puget Sound Health Alliance report finds healthcare stakeholders and patients all have role in improving health care quality and affordability
Doctors agree that people with heart disease and those with diabetes should be checked for dangerous cholesterol levels. Yet the Puget Sound Health Alliance's first "Community Checkup"—based on a vast draw of data reflecting the care provided to more than 1.6 million patients in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston counties—found opportunity for improvement in cholesterol checks and other basic services.
Bottom line: We all have work to do to make sure patients, especially those with chronic conditions, get the basic care that doctors agree is most effective.
"The Community Checkup is showing that across many basic medical services—like testing cholesterol, screening for colon cancer, and treating depression—some of us are not getting the care we need," said David Fleming, M.D., chair of the Health Alliance Board and director of Public Health — Seattle and King County. "And this is a problem for all of us: doctors, patients, insurers and employers that buy health benefits. But by working together, as we have to create this report, we can begin to solve it."
Release of the Community Checkup has been widely anticipated locally and nationally. The Puget Sound Health Alliance includes more than 160 organizations and 50 individuals from the region's health care, business, government, and labor communities, plus people from the general public.
The Alliance was the first organization in the nation to be designated a Community Leader for Value-Driven Health Care by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt.
Partial funding for the report came from King County and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
"This first Community Checkup shows results only for clinics that volunteered to be included. We applaud these clinics as leaders in supporting quality improvement. Their participation has been vital to helping the Alliance develop the most comprehensive report of its kind for this region," said Margaret Stanley, executive director of the Health Alliance.
The first Community Checkup shows results for 81 large clinic locations, which are part of 14 clinic systems that volunteered to be included in the inaugural report: Evergreen Health Care, Group Health, Minor & James Medical, MultiCare Health System, Northwest Physicians Network, Pacific Medical Centers, Providence Physician Group, Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Centers, Swedish Physicians, The Everett Clinic, The Polyclinic, UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, Valley Medical Center and Virginia Mason.
"Many physicians and other medical, health data and community experts have been actively involved in creating this report. This collaborative and open process has resulted in a Community Checkup that will be useful for all of our quality improvement efforts," said Lloyd David, CEO/executive director of The Polyclinic.
Related information
- About the Community Checkup: FAQ (pdf)
- Overview of the First Puget Sound "Community Checkup" (pdf)
- Frequently asked questions about measures & data (pdf)
- Puget Sound Health Alliance
- Video from the media briefing
- First checkup for area's clinics, Seattle Times
- Survey looked at patients, clinics in 5 counties, Seattle Post Intelligencer
- Report points out ways health care can improve, The Olympian