Community Checkup at the Philanthropy Center Recap

Last Wednesday, Susie Dade, Deputy Director of the Washington Health Alliance, came to Spokane to present the 2017 Community Checkup, a comprehensive report on health care quality in our state. It includes results for dozens of measures of quality and patient experience, and results cover four million insured lives, both commercial and Medicaid, as well as 39 counties and all 9 ACHs. Excitingly, we got to explore and focus on results for the greater Spokane area and BHT region, and there was definitely no shortage of new information.

Something that we were unaware of is that Washington is actually one of only three states in the country that has earned an ‘A’ for healthcare reporting. Although this unfortunately does not correlate with the actual quality of health care in Washington state, this transparency helps us know what we are doing well and where we need to target improvements. As a state, we strive to be in the top 10 percent in the nation on the most important measures of quality, and this report helps to inform us on how to get there.

So, how do we get there? Some things discussed during the presentation were collaboration as well as aligning efforts, implementing effective strategies and aligning payment with outcomes. Transparency is also a foundational step on a long journey that involves various different publics and stakeholders. While transparency remains the foundational step for success, action is the critical one. In addition, fostering honest dialogue about the challenges ahead and what needs to change is essential to drive improvement.

At the end of the day, it is important to celebrate our successes, stay positive and look ahead. We are thankful for all of our partners and are extremely excited about where this work will be taking us together. It’s been a great Year 1 in our Medicaid Transformation and BHT is definitely looking ahead as we move into Year 2.

Read more about the Community Checkup as well as its 2017 report here.