Mayo Alumni Magazine 2012 Spring - MC4409-0312 - Mayo Clinic

MAyO CLINIC
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
67 TH MEETING
2011
Research & Practice
For answers to health care reform, pass the Mayo
Healthcare Leadership Council sharing private-sector innovations that benefit patients while reducing costs
Mary Grealy
President, Healthcare Leadership
Council
Washington, D.C.
Innovation to Create a Health-
Value Health Care System
Mary Grealy, president of the
Healthcare Leadership Council
(HLC), told Mayo alumni: “Mayo is an
example of what the health care system
should be about. There’s no problem
we can’t solve if we could just find a
way to ‘Mayo-ize’ the entire system.
There are many lessons we can learn
from what Mayo has done and what
is under way.”
The Healthcare Leadership
Council, based in Washington, D.C.,
is a consortium of companies and
organizations from all sectors of
health care, with a shared vision of a
health care system that is defined by
accessibility, affordability, quality and
information. Mayo Clinic is a longtime
member. Former President and CEO
Denis Cortese, M.D., and former
CEO Robert Waller, M.D., served as
president of the council.
Grealy commented that while
health care reform has been viewed
as a battle, it’s really just a warm-up
of things to come.
“There is a battling over budgets in
a way I have never seen before,” she said.
“Deficit reduction is a primary focus and
is part of the debate every day. There’s
no question health care is going to play
a significant role in these discussions.
The question is whether the impact will
be for the better or for worse.”
Grealy added that potential solutions
— those that involve improved quality
metrics at a lower cost — will most
likely be found in health care innovations
put forth by the private sector.
HLC published a value compendium
of evidence-based innovations it has
been sharing with Congress, the
Institute of Medicine and the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services in
an attempt to show how ideas that
are working at institutions such as
Mayo Clinic could be applied on a
broader basis.
She pointed to an example in
the compendium: Mayo’s Total Joint
Database, the most comprehensive
database on joint replacements in the
world, which contains information
about every total joint implant
performed at Mayo Clinic since 1969.
Variables in total hip replacement,
such as surgical technique, can affect
the long-term outcome of the surgery
— one of Mayo’s top reimbursement
claims billed to Medicare.
The Total Joint Database allows
Mayo physicians to determine which
surgical practices and implant models
are most effective, based on historical
data. Prior to surgery, information such
as a patient’s level of pain and joint
function is documented. During
surgery, the approach, implant model
and design, and fixation method are
recorded. Postoperatively, patients are
evaluated after one, two and five years,
and then at five-year intervals.
8 Mayo Alumni