Geisinger receives presidential praise

Obama has cited system in recent health care speeches

By Nick Malawskey

When President Barack Obama spoke Monday in Chicago of the need to reform health care, and in Wisconsin last week, he cited one local organization as an example the nation should follow.

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When President Barack Obama spoke Monday in Chicago of the need to reform health care, he cited Geisinger Health System as an example the nation should follow. Local Geisinger facilities include the new Grays Woods site.

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“We have to ask why places like the Geisinger Health System in rural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City or communities like Green Bay can offer high-quality care at costs well below average, but other places in America can’t,” Obama said. “We need to identify the best practices across the country, learn from the success and replicate that success elsewhere.”

Dr. Alfred Casale, associate chief medical officer at Geisinger, said the health system was surprised at the president’s praise in Wisconsin and later in Chicago, but also said the group has been on the administration’s “radar screen for sometime.”

“It’s not too much of a surprise ... but again, it’s always exciting to see nationally prominent folks recognizing the good work that is being done close to home here,” he said.

In his speech on Monday, Obama called for a number of new initiatives, including the use of “best management practices” by health care providers.

Casale said Geisinger has been at the forefront of developing care management programs, including its “ProvenCare system.”

The program used research from Geisinger to develop a number of best management practices — things that should be done for a patient — based on their ailments. The practices are then tied into the patient’s electronic medical records, which automatically remind caregivers what should be done to assist the patient.

“So patients with longer-term cases had systems put in place to make it more likely that all of the things we determine they should get were going to happen, rather than all of the things someone remembered should happen,” Casale said.

By standardizing the care given patients, Geisinger has been able to increase the level of care — and has saved money, Casale said.

“Better care does not mean more expensive care ... in many times better care is less wasteful in the long run,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing that, if it were generalizable across the country, would really begin to make a dent.”

Geisinger did have one criticism of Obama’s speeches: The president mispronounced “Geisinger” last week. But, said Casale, he got it right on Monday.