Editor’s note: My article that follows originally appeared as a column under another title in the Idaho Statesman’s Business Insider in February. Subsequent edits account for our current use on the blog. For decades, we have seen reports showing that U.S. health costs are greater and outcomes worse than in most other countries. This seemed irreconcilable [...]
This is National Women’s Health Week and I have asked one of our St. Luke’s physician leaders, Dr. Laura McGeorge, to be my guest blogger this week on some of the key health issues for women. St. Luke’s wants Idaho to have the healthiest women of any state. Better health for women means a more [...]
Two clinical improvement initiatives from St. Luke’s were recognized by Qualis Health, the well-known care management organization that oversees quality for the Medicare program in our region, at the state-wide Quality and Patient Safety Conference held in Boise on April 5. These two projects were selected from numerous submissions and were among four chosen for [...]
Dr. Dan Zuckerman, whose writing appears below, is an outstanding oncologist and one of our outstanding physician leaders at St. Luke’s. I was talking to him about my concerns about the epidemic of childhood obesity and my fear that we would be seeing unprecedented levels of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arthritis, heart disease, stroke, and even cancer. He [...]
Since 1995, the first full week in April has been National Public Health Week, providing the American Public Health Association and other organizations the opportunity to bring attention to health improvement. I recently met with Elke Shaw-Tulloch, administrator for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Division of Public Health. We discussed the fact that [...]
While picking up a prescription recently, I had the opportunity to tour our St. Luke’s Boise pharmacy and talk to staff members who, I was delighted to discover, are incorporating our vision and strategy every day in all they do. I visited with Pharmacy Operations Manager Mike Griffiths and was so impressed with his clarity [...]
I am writing with an update on the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. We learned late yesterday that the FTC and the AG have decided to file a complaint in federal court against St. Luke’s. This action is related to the lawsuit filed by Saint Alphonsus and [...]
As a doting grandfather and guest reader for our annual “Reading is Good Medicine” event, I had my hands full Saturday. It was my great joy to be included in the reader lineup for our sixth annual Barnes & Noble reading benefit. My choice: “Go, Dog. Go!” This year’s event coincided with the birthday of [...]
Editor’s note: My article that follows originally appeared as a column in the Idaho Statesman’s Business Insider last month. The problems with the American health care system include fragmentation (care is delivered in many settings by many providers with little coordination) and misaligned incentives (payment methodologies do not create incentives for the results we say [...]
