A Better Way to Deliver Health Care

One of the great puzzles in modern society is how to deliver health care at lower cost with better outcomes. Perhaps a hint in solving the problem relates to one word from the previous sentence: Deliver.

We could do a much better job of delivering patients to care settings that are convenient and inexpensive. Too many people simply can’t manage the logistics of getting to a health care professional very easily, which can lead to small, inexpensive issues becoming big, expensive problems.

Part of the challenge, of course, is that we humans tend to focus on exciting innovations instead of basic activity. We’ve mapped the human genome. We’ve developed precision medicine. Our Apple Watches record ECGs. We’re using Artificial Intelligence to diagnose disease. This is all wonderful progress. But one really simple, effective, obvious thing we don’t do well enough is bringing people to a medical office.

We underappreciate the basics, perhaps because they’re boring, when in fact it’s very exciting to the patient to see a health care professional in that moment of need.

The good news is that a number of companies are increasingly addressing this issue, and the irony is that they aren’t traditional “providers” of health care.

Take Lyft and Uber, who are pouring money into developing systems to deliver – there’s that word again – patients to the doctor’s office. They are addressing the basic problem of mobility by connecting patients with health care systems and, in doing so, reducing cancellations, improving scheduling, and cutting costs.

Another example comes from Welltower, which finances the development of senior living facilities that include on-site medical offices, eliminating the need for seniors to travel any distance for care. The company is developing a new facility in Manhattan, called The Welltower, that will house retail shops on the ground floor and, above it, apartments, exercise facilities, terraces and outdoor gardens, dining rooms, a salon, an art studio, a theater – and medical examination rooms.

In the non-profit world, two New York-based organizations are pioneering ways of bringing care to society’s most vulnerable citizens through innovative delivery systems. The Children’s Health Fund operates a pediatric mobile medical clinic called the “Blue Bus” that provides children and families curbside checkups and treatments. The Children’s Aid Society provides medical and dental services in a number of New York City public schools for kids whose parents have neither the means nor the ability to take time from hourly-wage jobs to seek care. Henry Schein, in full disclosure, is privileged to support both organizations.

The obvious conclusion is that health care is best delivered where the patient is.

The obvious conclusion is that health care is best delivered where the patient is.

The elderly have mobility issues, so let’s treat their lack of mobility as part of their health care challenge. The underserved have a lack of resources, which we need to treat as part of their health care challenge. 

Most of all, let’s keep working with innovators outside of conventional health care delivery systems, who aren’t bound by traditional thinking. Many of you reading this come from industries outside of health care: What are your thoughts? Our seniors and our children will thank us for putting their most basic needs first.