Patients may be less concerned about protecting the privacy of their medical information if disseminating that information widely means better care. So says Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, who gave this year's Parker B. Francis Distinguished Lecture at the opening session of today's American College of Healthcare Executives Congress on Healthcare Leadership in Chicago.
Davis gave the more than 4,000 executives in attendance a sneak peek at one of the major findings of a Commonwealth Fund survey of the public's views on the healthcare system scheduled to be released next month. She said nine out of 10 people surveyed said they want all of their healthcare information made available to all healthcare providers involved in their care. Davis said that finding runs contrary to the position of many privacy advocates who argue that patients want to release personal medical information at their discretion to only the providers involved in a specific episode of care.
The bulk of Davis' presentation was spent reviewing provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that in her opinion will lead to a higher-performing healthcare system. She predicated that the period from 2011 to 2020 “will be the most exciting decade in healthcare in the past 100 years.”
The opening session also featured the acceptance of ACHE's Gold Medal Award for significant contributions to the healthcare field by Kenneth Graham, president and CEO of El Camino (Calif.) Hospital. Graham was gracious in his acceptance speech despite the fact that he is stepping down from his position on June 30 after the board of the hospital
declined to renew his contract. Neither Graham nor outgoing ACHE board chairman Christopher Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health in San Diego, who introduced Graham, mentioned Graham's changed job status.
Meanwhile, Rulon Stacey, president and CEO of the Poudre Valley Health System in Fort Collins, Colo., offered his first remarks as the ACHE's new board chair at the opening session. He said healthcare executives all share “… an inner desire to help people in need. At your core, that is who you are.” For more on Stacey's opening session remarks, please watch a video interview with him in tomorrow's edition of
Live@ACHE.
