Pursuit of Value Drives Strategy to Improve Operations and Outcomes

The future of American healthcare remains cloudy, with the shifting contours of regulatory and fiscal reform still being shaped. Providers are beset by many challenges that vary but often include state and federal healthcare funding decisions that are antithetical to the interests of patients and aging populations. Regional public health crises and rapidly evolving relationships with third-party payers complicate matters even further.Yale New Haven Health System decided to pursue value as its overriding strategy for navigating the uncertainty in healthcare that is likely to persist for years to come. Many, if not most, of the challenges we face at Yale New Haven Health are shared by health systems across the country; the operational concepts that drive our strategy likely will be familiar. The differentiator is the execution: At Yale New Haven Health, infusing our organization with a culture of high reliability, as well as adopting the practice of clinical redesign, has yielded concrete enhancements in patient care, operational resilience, and financial sustainability. Clinical redesign saved Yale New Haven Health nearly $25 million in direct costs in one year alone.