Why Personalized Primary Care Works

Health care providers are under tremendous pressure to achieve the Triple Aim of better health for designated populations, better care experiences for patients and reduced cost of care. It comes at a time of enormous transition in health care, in which successful models are hard to find and refine. That's what's so encouraging about the model of personalized primary care that we have been developing at Intermountain Healthcare. The lessons we've already learned are informing our expanding rollout of the model and enhancing the potential for broader scaling.

The transitions that health care providers face are extraordinary and simultaneous:

• Businesses are no longer accepting cost-shifting.
• Government and private insurers increasingly are paying for value and outcomes, not volume; they are also employing new payment models for hospitals and clinicians.
• Health care reform is creating increased demand, and doctors and hospitals are consolidating, among other approaches.

Crucial to achieving the Triple Aim in this shifting context is shared accountability, or more fully engaging all of the participants in health care in the pursuit of higher-quality care, which frequently leads to the additional benefit of lower costs. Everyone  — hospitals, physicians, nurses and other caregivers, employees, insurers, plan members, patients and their family members — has a role to play.