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In a landmark report, the Institute of Medicine outlined a bold and ambitious strategic plan that would substantially improve healthcare within ten years. The report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, proposes six aims to transform care to be patient-centered, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and safe.
In 2002, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation selected seven healthcare organizations including HealthPartners to a two-year, $1.9 million grant each to implement these six aims.
What began as a prestigious nationally funded project has grown to become a blueprint for how HealthPartners delivers care and service. Here are some of the ways HealthPartners is implementing the six aims:
 Electronic medical records. HealthPartners accelerated implementation of electronic medical records. Today, 3,800 users including all HealthPartners Medical Group physicians and nurses use EMR to access patient data at many points of care.
One advantage is improved convenience with online scheduling which allows patients to directly book their own medical appointments.
EMR eliminated the necessity of moving a member's paper chart around, saving $3 million every year.
Asthma action plan. HealthPartners is piloting a project to work closely with schools to identify asthma triggers with a goal of reducing the need for emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Breast health. A project to improve breast cancer care has dramatically reduced unnecessary delays for patients, decreasing the diagnostic care phase from fifteen to eight days.
Emergency medicine. Regions Hospital emergency department reduced the number of patients who are diverted to other facilities from twenty-eight to fewer than one per month. The next phase of the project involves getting all patients evaluated by a physician within twenty minutes of admission.
Safest in America. HealthPartners is one of nine healthcare organizations in the state that are working together on two initial goals: to improve safety of medication and to standardize confirmation of correct site surgery procedures.
End of life care. A 1996 Gallup survey found that nine out of ten Americans said they want to die at home. The reality is that three out of four deaths occur in hospitals and nursing homes. HealthPartners has increased the number of patients who benefit from hospice care and also increased the length of stay in hospice.
Prepared practice teams. Teams of physicians and providers coordinate care from pre-visit through post-visit and between visits.
A pilot project at HealthPartners West Clinic in St. Louis Park focused on depression. As a result, patients experienced an average one-third reduction in symptoms, and half of all patients with major depression experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in symptoms.
While we have made progress, our work is far from over. We will be successful when every Minnesotan has affordable access to healthcare that is patient-centered, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and safe.
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