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The Business of
Health Care Report
Nationally, the Leapfrog Group, a consortium of Fortune 500 companies, has agreed to steer its purchases of health care to hospitals adhering to three principles with the potential to improve patient outcomes. Another group, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ), has identified 11 patient safety practices that promote safe care and additional practices
for further research. Locally, however, conflicting viewpoints mean our industry
is divided over which national plan to adopt. The Dallas Fort Worth Business Group on Health, a coalition
of large Metroplex employers, has endorsed the plan proposed by The Leapfrog Group. The Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council has formed a Patient
Safety Collaborative around the AHRQ practices considered the most promising for immediate implementation. The
council is working with its members to establish a measurement infrastructure and a reporting system for these
practices. The Dallas and Fort Worth medical societies, representing the physician viewpoints, support the hospital
council and the AHRQ approach. Texas Health Resources has incorporated some Leapfrog and some
AHRQ methods into its own quality improvement plans, while reaffirming the importance of patient-physician communication
in interpreting any information. At THR our philosophy is simple: We support any initiative that
improves quality and leads to better-informed consumers as long as the information is accurate and timely. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO Doug
Hawthorne with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio
1080 KRLD.
©
2002 Texas Health Resources |
I’m Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 