Care Delivery

Every day, hospital clinicians witness the devastating effects of the opioid epidemic on the patients, families and communities they serve. Prescription opioids can be a safe and necessary element of pain management, but they also carry significant risk for misuse, addiction, overdose and…
When announcing a new health care company formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, Warren Buffett didn’t mince words about the rationale: “The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy.”
When Alexander Gamble, M.D., was hired to develop a palliative medicine program at Phelps County Regional Medical Center in south-central Missouri, he expected it would take some time to persuade physicians to make referrals. But on the second day of orientation, Gamble received his first…
Peter Boling, M.D., graduated from medical school almost 40 years ago, and his career has been driven by a single question. “Is the hospital emergency room and the inpatient ward the best way to solve the problems of an immobile 80-year-old with complex multimorbid conditions who can't…
When you’re young and on top of the world, cancer is likely the last thing on your mind. And yet, cancer rates for millennials and Gen Xers appear to be on the rise. One study from the American Cancer Society last year found that colorectal cancer rates are on the increase for young…
House calls used to be considered a thing of the past. But while still not that common, home-based care is gaining traction. The reason? Frail and elderly patients can benefit from house calls, and the concept meshes with value-based payment programs, as Lola Butcher describes in our cover…
A decade ago, leaders of four health systems serving Milwaukee residents recognized that they needed to do something different. Their organizations increasingly were burdened by high rates of uninsured and underinsured patients. Primary care services were underused, and emergency departments were…
In Dallas, as in many cities, frequent users of emergency services often face underlying social issues. Coordination between health care and social services is often fragmented, but now an information-exchange portal launched by Parkland Health & Hospital System has found success in…
In 2016, Milwaukee’s infant-mortality rate was 9.1, meaning that slightly more than nine babies died for every 1,000 live births. By contrast, the national infant-mortality rate was 5.8 in 2014, the most recent year for which information is available, according to the Federal…
Wellness and well-being are inextricably linked to the social and economic conditions of people’s lives. Up to 40 percent of health outcomes may be attributed to nonmedical factors like income, housing status and access to sufficient healthy food.