Cincinnati Healthcare System Breakthroughs

In Cincinnati, where GE has a major presence, communitywide actions have brought coordinated solutions across all segments of the healthcare system to help reduce costs, raise quality and increase access to healthcare in the city.

Cincinnati’s history of healthcare quality and cost challenges is similar to that of other U.S. cities. More than 12 percent of its population lacks health insurance, the mortality rate is higher than average and annual health spending increases have been averaging 8 percent.

But Cincinnati also has a long history of public-private collaboration. In early 2010, GE worked with community leaders and other local corporations to catalyze citywide, comprehensive approaches to reducing costs and improving quality of and access to care.

The results?

In the spring of 2010, none of the primary care practices in the region met the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) requirements of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, with GE’s help, made the team-based, coordinated and preventive care features of PCMH practices a core part of its regional transformative efforts. Thanks to this work, more than 10 primary care practices met the PCMH requirements by the end of 2010; that number is projected to pass 100 by the end of 2011.

Expanding access to healthcare information technology is the focus of HealthBridge—the community’s health information exchange. Thanks to a federal Beacon Community award, and a significant in-kind commitment by GE, HealthBridge is helping Cincinnati become a medically wired community, which will lead to higher quality and lower costs.

Several other grassroots projects are under way, such as the goVibrant campaign, which is making being healthy a community standard; We THRIVE, the county’s childhood obesity reduction program; and YourHealthMatters, a Web site reporting on how well local physicians meet five standardized measures of care for diabetics. GE is working to share best practices with these and other local programs, such as the Health Guide from Care Innovations—a new home health tool for GE Aviation employees and retirees and their spouses with type 2 diabetes. And now that substantial progress is being made in these areas, the community is turning its attention to payment innovation. This effort will not only catalyze the spread and sustainability of all of the community’s collaborative quality-improvement initiatives, but also contribute to reducing healthcare spending by more than $1 billion by 2014.