Leaders Discuss Health Care Quality

October 16th, 2007

Leaders from state health care organizations, employers, consumer advocacy groups and government met in New Orleans on Tuesday, Nov. 6, to discuss findings from a recent national study that ranks Louisiana 46th in the United States in terms of health system performance, and from a second study that attributes part of this poor showing to the structural characteristics of the States public and private health care delivery systems and provider practice patterns.

This gathering of leaders was the inaugural event of the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, a new private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to lead evidence-based, collaborative initiatives to improve the health of the people of Louisiana. The LHCQFs volunteer board represents a cross section of public and private insurance purchasers, patient advocates, providers, physicians, and insurers in the state.

The reality of our current situation is that there has been a complex, systematic failure in health care nationally which is especially acute here in Louisiana, said Michael Fleming, MD, President of the LHCQF and past-President of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Our solutions must be implemented at the system-level, must come from stakeholders within our own State, and be focused as much on health as on health care.

For more on the meeting and the data that were discussed, visit www.stayhealthyla.org