System CEO wants the patient experience raised to new level
Dr. David Feinberg’s focus on patient-centered care has earned him recent recognition on Modern Healthcare’s lists of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders.
He said he’s doubling down this year on his emphasis on patient-centeredness at 12-hospital Geisinger Health System, which he joined in May as CEO upon the retirement of longtime CEO Dr. Glenn Steele.
Geisinger already has an unusually low observed-to-expected mortality ratio across all its facilities of 0.5. By treating patients through team-based care, Geisinger expects to keep driving that rate down, Feinberg said.
Pennsylvania’s expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults in 2015 has increased the number of Medicaid managed-care members to about 165,000 in the Geisinger Health Plan. Managing care for that often-challenging population means meeting those patients where they live to ensure that they not only make appointments, but that they have heat and a safe place to live, said Feinberg, a psychiatrist.
He also said physicians
and other providers have to do a better job of explaining endof-life options to patients and their families to reduce inappropriately aggressive treatments that may hurt quality of life and drive up costs. In addition, he said hospitals and health systems need to reduce unnecessary treatment. He pointed to Geisinger’s heart center of excellence, to which national employers send their workers, as an example of providing highquality, efficient care.
Feinberg said every policy and business decision in healthcare—from mergers to new drug products to Medicaid expansion—must be evaluated based on whether that decision serves the best interests of patients.
“2016 has to be the Year of the Patient.”
—Dr. David Feinberg