So much about what the leaders at North Memorial HealthCare, a two-community-hospital health system based in Minnesota, are doing these days, exemplifies the characteristics of the boldest pioneering organizations in healthcare today. As a result, North Memorial was named the co-second place winning team in the Healthcare Informatics Innovator Awards program. Jeffrey Vespa, M.D., medical director for quality at North Memorial, shares his perspectives on the challenges and opportunities inherent in universalizing quality system-wide across an organization.
Hospitals and health systems nationwide are struggling these days to create a healthcare system of improved care quality and patient safety, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, accountability, and transparency. Yet a small number of pioneering organizations are already charting a bold, clear course—among them, North Memorial HealthCare, a two-community-hospital health system based in Robbinsdale, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, which encompasses the 300-bed North Memorial Medical center in Robbinsdale and the 100-bed Maple Grove Hospital.
