In this week’s interview, Robert Urciuoli, president and chief executive officer of the independent Roger Williams Medical Center, renews his support for a health care summit, something we have called for over the last several years.
Rising insurance rates, the failure in many instances of managed care, the high costs of operating medical facilities, charitable care, reimbursement reductions, labor problems, failing hospital mergers, nursing shortages, the high cost of medical technology and more give rise to the necessity for top health care, insurance and government officials to actively search for solutions to these vexing issues.
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What could a summit accomplish? Urciuoli says it can bring about cooperation and coordination, and maybe a restructuring of our system of mainly general hospitals into one of centers of excellence. The result? Better quality, more efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
There is no question that our health care system nationally and locally remains in chaos. Nowhere does opportunity present itself better than in Rhode Island, a small state that can develop a system of coordination and cooperation that can be a model for the rest of the nation.
Urciuoli sees a system where hospitals can specialize in what they do best. Roger Williams as a cancer center, Miriam as a cardiac center, and right through the major disciplines, with, of course, a sprinkling of general care hospitals well placed geographically.
The discussion begins, however, with a health care summit, one called by the governor and attended by leading health care and insurance professionals and advocates.
We urge Gov. Lincoln Almond to begin the discussion, to call for and implement a statewide health care summit that at the very least explores the viability of a centers of excellence model that may bring about a more efficient and higher quality health care system in the Ocean State that serves as a model for the entire nation.
