Lewis Blackman: Lessons learned from a ninth-grader I came home from work one November day several years ago to find my identical twin daughters in tears. One of their ninth-grade classmates — Lewis Blackman — had just died unexpectedly after undergoing routine surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina…

Medicine is very interested in space. If enough social distance space between individuals is not maintained, the spaces inside the lungs'…

The Care Process Design System (CPDS) As should be evident by now, the engine that really drives the train in a PCCI network is what I call the care process design system or CPDS. The CPDS is a systematic approach to designing, monitoring, and refining common care processes through a…

FUNCTION So, now you’ve formed a clinically integrated network, and you’re ready actually to do something? What should be the function of a PCCI network? In my opinion and based on my experience with these types of organizations, the following activities should be prioritized…. Care process design and improvement —…

STRUCTURE Incorporation: A patient-centered, clinically integrated (PCCI) delivery system is usually incorporated as a for-profit LLC. This does not mean that the PCCI network is expected to generate profits or be built to sell off to other investors. It simply means that when you bring disparate provider groups together, such…

DEFINITIONS Each of the words within the patient-centered, clinically integrated (PCCI) model has been carefully chosen to describe a revolutionary change in how the US healthcare system should deliver care. Let’s examine each in more depth. Patient-Centered — The IOM (Institute of Medicine) defines patient-centered care as: “Providing care that…

INTRODUCTION The future success of the US healthcare system will rely on our ability to reimagine the delivery system from the ground up and design it in a way so that it reliably delivers high value, which I define as quality per unit of cost, to the patients it serves. …

When I left the Army and entered into private medical practice, I was far from home. …

It’s been over 45 years now since I entered medical school. It’s been over a year now since I retired from clinical practice. …