Nearly everyone in America agrees that our nation's health care system can be improved.
A growing consensus of health care professionals suggest it begins with managing chronic illnesses better, adopting electronic health records, coordinating care, researching what treatments work best, realigning financial incentives to reward success, encouraging prevention and saying no to expensive, unproven therapies.
But for many patients and families, improving health care is simply about making it human again.
"Consumers have told us they feel health care is too complex," says Doug Hawthorne, chief executive officer of Texas Health Resources. "They need help in maneuvering the health care system, and they believe that compassion has diminished in their relationships with caregivers."
As part of its commitment to transforming health care in North Texas, Texas Health Resources and its Presbyterian, Arlington Memorial and Harris Methodist hospitals believe that it is their duty to lead the way in "rehumanizing" health care.
"It's a commitment to the goal that health care be dispensed with respect for the individual, respect for medicine and respect for the healing power of faith," Hawthorne says.
