Page 20 - Modern Healthcare (January 2020)

Health systems try
to trim waste to reduce
healthcare spending
By Maria Castellucci MID THE DEBATE about how to slow rising healthcare costs, a group of 54
A healthcare organizations—many of them health systems—are working together
to develop a strategy to reduce waste 50% by 2025.
As part of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Leadership Alliance,
which includes C-suite executives from MemorialCare, Providence and HealthPartners, the
leaders are calling on healthcare organizations nationwide to rethink how they do business
and to remove services that don’t
add value for the patient.
The alliance’s bold waste-reduc-
tion goal for the U.S. healthcare
system would save about $500 bil-
lion. Recent estimates about the
cost of waste ranges from $760 bil-
lion to $935 billion annually.
The alliance members are of the
mindset that healthcare organiza-
tions have a responsibility to de-
crease waste rather than waiting
for regulatory changes requiring
them to do so.

MemorialCare Chief
Transformation Officer
Helen Macfie and Chief
Medical Officer Dr. James
Leo are helping lead the
IHI’s push to reduce waste.

SALLY ARISTEI
18 Modern Healthcare | January 27, 2020