1 minute read
Dr. David Shulkin began sharing his skills and talents with our team recently. One of many fascinating facts that surfaced about him is that he started a company more than 20 years ago called DoctorQuality with the mission of doing virtually the same thing that we are – defining quality at the provider level to facilitate value-based care (VBC).Although it’s evolving and the healthcare industry is far from having complete transparency, the actual “value” part of VBC has been around for decades. In the 1990’s, rustling up quality data was near impossible to do comprehensively. Very little was automated or online - even when it came to simple board certification. There were practically zero resources available to consumers.
A Call to Action
In 2008, Dr. Shulkin published a book called Questions Patients Need to Ask, a perennial guide for a hospital stay or hospice care, written by doctors. In a Q&A format, it answers questions like “Is there a way I can decrease my chances of getting a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after surgery?” If every hospital patient read and acted on it, outcomes might improve drastically. The fact that he felt the book actually needed to be published demonstrates how much average patients take quality for granted or assume it’s always there “because the hospital seems so clean!"
Carrying this mindset to the Veterans Administration, Dr. Shulkin’s primary focus was on quality of care delivery and especially on the idea that clinicians who treat our Vets must be trained to care for Veteran-specific conditions. At ArmadaHealth, we know from our Veteran members how our matching services can magnify the difference in the quality of their care.
We are grateful that Dr. Shulkin isn’t finished with his efforts to improve quality in healthcare. He is helping us on our mission to provide quality transparency through healthcare access for millions of people, contributing to the promise of value-based care and helping Veterans get the care they deserve.
Check out the press release with Dr. Shulkin's impressive background. He’ll be keynoting the World Health Care Congress with us. Meet us there, April 28th – May 1st in D.C.
