Care Center Green Health

"Putting Patients First" is a complete guide to patient-centered care the highly successful philosophy that has been championed and refined by the renowned Planetree Institute. This important volume explains the origins and uses of patient-centered care and provides a practical approach to implementing it in any health care organization. Step by step, the book clearly outlines the elements of the highly successful Planetree patient-centered care model and includes the validating research. This much-needed resource shows how to apply these methods to the larger issues of health care delivery such as managed care, workforce shortages, patients; "right to know" legislation, and hospital marketing and branding efforts. "Putting Patients Firs"t is filled with illustrative case examples drawn from hospitals and health care organizations that have successfully implemented the Planetree model.

Using the success of other industries as a model, this book promotes methodologies, indicators, and ideas that health care organizations can use to streamline their practices and maintain strong profit margins. Based on the core principles embodied in lean logistics-the systematic process of removing waste and inefficiency throughout the purchasing, supply, distribution, and business operations chain-Streamlining Health Care Operations shows health care leaders how to fundamentally restructure their organizations and effectively balance costs, quality, and patient access to excellent care. Written by Audie Lewis, a leader in the movement to improve the efficiency of health care organizations, this essential resource shows how to: Reward excellence for creative low-cost solutions Implement innovative approaches to patient access Create a customer-driven culture Educate buyers for long-term success Develop an objective economic evaluation model Excel at using review committees effectively Minimize the impact of past and future mistakes Do a total life-cycle analysis Use budget control mechanisms "New times demand new thinking, not cosmetic Band-Aids. Audie Lewis clearly has his finger on the pulse of the new economy and of today's health care industry. He is a true pioneer in his field and his ideas are innovative, principled and soundly pragmatic: they work." --Dr. Stephen R. Covey, best-selling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and chairman, Covey Leadership Center "I recommend this thoughtful and innovative book to those who care about the American health care system-both in Washington, D.C. and around the country. As we continue to seek ways to improve theefficiency and quality of health care delivery in America, sometimes we look past the kinds of innovative approaches examined in Streamlining Health Care Operations. Audie Lewis's book is an important contribution to this debate." --The Honorable J.