Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/51232
++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + +BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT +++ +++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "I am very excited about the formation and the goals of the Community Physician Partnership and Quality Alliance. As independent private practice physicians, we can be a part of a larger network, which will allow us to provide a higher level of care to our patients and communities, as well as allow us to be more cost effective at the same time. This concept has worked well in other cities and should work superbly in our already strong health care environment here in Cleveland." – Robert de Swart, MD Pictured (left) Rick Giusti, MRI Tech and (right) Robert de Swart, MD Quality Alliance: O VER THE YEARS, and particularly during the past decade or so, a great deal of highly public — and publicized — atten- tion has been focused on the goal of increasing our nation's health- care quality while simultaneously reducing the overall cost of that care for public and private payors. But before we, as a nation, could reasonably expect to see an increase in the quality of the healthcare that we, as patients, receive, and that we, as healthcare professionals, deliver, we had to define our terms. What exactly is "quality" in the context of healthcare? How can the "cost" of healthcare, broadly speaking, be assessed and measured? Is reducing cost the same as paying less? Does increased quality, mean better? And what combination of individuals, groups, organizations and oversight bodies could possibly possess the necessary knowledge, experience, access to information, and clear, professional judgment necessary to produce a set of shared goals, and associated metrics, that would at once reflect the realities of health, and healthcare in today's society, and be both actionable, and measur- able, by consumers, providers, and payors alike? In other words, what should we measure, and who is to say that we are measuring it accurately? At present, neither of these ques- tions has a clear, categorical answer, probably because the issues and concerns that are the component 40 | Cleveland-Akron-Canton MD NEWS MDNEWS.COM JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 A Quality Choice for Physicians in Private Practice parts of the American healthcare ecosystem are incredibly varied, remarkably complex, and inevitably informed by multiple perspectives. But a quick review of some of the more well-known, quality-related efforts of recent years may reveal something interesting about the direction that much of this work is taking. 1997: The non-profit National Patient Safety Foundation begins working with multiple organiza- tions, including the American Medical Association, to improve awareness of quality and safety in patient care. 1999: The Leapfrog Group is formed when several large PHOTOS COURTESY OF CLEVELAND CLINIC