A feather in CR’s health care cap

As national health care reform sputters in Congress, communities struggle to deal with cost and access issues. Some are doing better than others.

And according to the independent, not-for-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Cedar Rapids health care community ranks at or near the top of the list. IHI's widely respected assessment serves as a good reminder: Don't take for granted what you have in your own backyard.

National recognition surfaced at a health care conference in Washington, D.C., last summer, where Cedar Rapids was one of 10 communities identified as providing high-quality care at lower cost than the national average.

Then during an international forum in Florida last month, IHI President Don Berwick devoted more than 10 minutes of his keynote address to Cedar Rapids and recognized our hospitals' CEOs, Ted Townsend of St. Luke's and Tim Charles of Mercy Medical Center, and Dr. James Levett, president of the Cedar Rapids Healthcare Alliance, for their leadership.

Berwick pointed to the growing trend of cooperation and collaboration among Cedar Rapids providers and institutions. “They respect each other,” he said.

While average costs for a Medicare patient case here are at least one-third less than the national average, “the quality of care was as high as we've found,” Berwick added.

He said the two hospitals are working together to balance competition and cooperation. Strides have been made in more patient-centered, coordinated care. And he mentioned the proposed joint community cancer center as another potential success story.

Resources are always limited, he added, and the Cedar Rapids model goes a long way toward delivering quality care to the most patients.

Nonetheless, the model “is still fragile,” Berwick warned. It's not complete. Cost of care and access is still a challenge even here, where there's a substantial free and subsidized care network that the medical community helps support.

The best news is that Cedar Rapids appears to be on the right track. Let's appreciate that. And then it's full steam ahead to build on this success.