Getting the Vitals on Health Care

By Adam Mamerow
Wells Fargo

Class 29 Blog: This is a blog series about the experience and impact of Scottsdale Leadership’s Core Program. The views expressed here represent those of class members and not those of Scottsdale Leadership.

Class 29 recently completed our Health Care Day at the Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center (thank you for your generous hospitality!).  We started out the day discussing resilience – which is basically defined as the ability to return to a previous position after deformation or stress.  The healthcare industry as a whole has most definitely been ‘deformed andstressed’ over the past several years.  With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”), the medical community and ancillary businesses have had to show significant resilience to accommodate and adapt to these changes.  The day was a great opportunity to spend time with healthcare leaders to get a first hand look at how these changes affect us on a macro and local level.

Tom Sadvary, CEO, Scottsdale Lincoln Health Network spoke about his career in the medical profession – including 29 years with Scottsdale Healthcare.  He discussed the three primary objectives of healthcare: 1) quality of care, 2) price/affordability, and 3) access of care.  One recent industry change has attempted to address these objectives – the Affordable Care Act.  It has provided more access to more individuals, but is it really the cure-all for all of the healthcare industry’s maladies?  There are still millions of citizens not covered despite the law’s mandate and the influx of new patients into the system has the potential to cause a disruption of care for the people who had healthcare coverage prior to the law.  Patients are expected to be better consumers, but specific price differences between providers are still not available.  Other issues that still need to be addressed include the disparity of treatment, physician shortages, and medical errors (25% of hospital admissions experience some error).  Resilience will definitely be required to find the right balance over time, but it is clear that the healthcare industry will continue to be stressed and it cannot be returned to its previous position.

Despite the pending issues, there are many positives here in Scottsdale!  Class 29 had the privilege to hear from local doctors leading the way in research:  Dr. Caselli; behavior Neurologist at Mayo Clinic, and Dr. Korn, Medical Director at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center.  Dr. Caselli highlighted some of his work in pre-clinical Alzheimer’s – being able to determine the cause as early as possible could lead to improved care and a cure.  Mr. Korn discussed the RADAR program – Rapid Detection and Assessment of Response. This process allows doctors to quickly determine the effectiveness of cancer treatment to ensure the patient receives the right treatment at the right time.  The doctors were only two examples of the amazing work being conducted right here in Scottsdale.  Other examples of Scottsdale leading the way include: 37 new drugs currently being tested; 6 clinical trials starting over the next few years; the first MRI was in Scottsdale; and the prototype design for an angiography suite.  In addition, the City of Scottsdale is creating the Cure Corridor which includes a partnership between Scottsdale Healthcare, CVS, Mayo Clinic, and other entities.  The Cure Corridor’s objective is to promote medical research and attract other business in the medical field.  Ultimately, this collective innovation has led to cancer patients from 48 states and two dozen countries coming to Scottsdale for cancer treatment.

Obviously, there are concerns that still need to be addressed in the industry; but we should all really take pride in the amazing healthcare available to us locally.