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As Prepared for Delivery at Launch of the Surgical Care Improvement ProjectGood afternoon. Thank you for that introduction Barry [Barry M. Straube, MD - Director, Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, and Chief Medical Officer, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] Being here takes me back to the day, now almost two years ago, that I was sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services. I told the people who had gathered that "the need for fewer medical mistakes, for lower costs, for better health care fundamentally is real. A health system that revolves around consumers, and not the system, that's right." That's true today. I just came from a conversation with a collaborative of the AQA (formerly the Ambulatory Quality Care) Alliance and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), which are working to provide Americans better care by providing them with more information about quality. Medicare has a similar initiative underway, designed to provide beneficiaries with better information about the costs and quality of their care. The Medicare initiative is intended to (1) provide performance information to physicians who treat Medicare beneficiaries that will assist them in improving the quality of care they are delivering to Medicare beneficiaries; and (2) provide information to Medicare beneficiaries, via a website, that will help them make more informed Medicare choices. My hope is that through these steps and others, the health care sector will be transformed into an interconnected, value-driven system. At the heart of those projects�and the Surgical Care Improvement Project�is the idea of empowering patients and health care professionals through useful information. It's important for people to talk to their doctors. I've had a lot of conversations with my doctor, and the doctors that care for my parents and my children. The best ones I've had are when we feel like we've understood one another, and when we're both clear on the outlook and the next steps to be taken. Those conversations seem to happen most often when both of us are on the same page, when we have the best information. That takes effort. Ultimately, care is an active process�a collaborative effort among both patient and provider. Both of them have an essential part to play; both are empowered when they play it. That's why I'm pleased that you at the Surgical Care Improvement Project are encouraging patient empowerment through your checklist of tips for safer surgery. I appreciate the goals you've set, and I appreciate the effort that you are putting into getting there. So I thank all of you for your leadership of the Surgical Care Improvement Project, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you to build a better health care system that will bring even greater healing and hope to patients' lives. Thank you. Last revised: October 30, 2006 |
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