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Group Health Cooperative’s Transformation Toward Patient-Centered Access

Center for Health Studies, Seattle, Washington, ralston.j{at}ghc.org

Diane P. Martin

University of Washington, Seattle

Melissa L. Anderson

Center for Health Studies, Seattle, Washington

Paul A. Fishman

Center for Health Studies, Seattle, Washington

Douglas A. Conrad

University of Washington, Seattle

Eric B. Larson

Center for Health Studies, Seattle, Washington

David Grembowski

University of Washington, Seattle

The Institute of Medicine suggests redesigning health care to ensure safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered care. The concept of patient-centered access supports these goals. Group Health, a mixed-model health care system, attempted to improve patients’ access to care through the following changes: (a) offering a patient Web site with patient access to patient—physician secure e-mail, electronic medical records, and health promotion information; (b) offering advanced access to primary physicians; (c) redesigning primary care services to enhance care efficiency; (d) offering direct access to physician specialists; and (e) aligning primary physician compensation through incentives for patient satisfaction, productivity, and secure messaging with patients. In the 2 years following the redesign, patients reported higher satisfaction with certain aspects of access to care, providers reported improvements in the quality of service given to patients, and enrollment in Group Health stayed aligned with statewide trends in health care coverage.

Key Words: patient-centered care • health care quality • health care access • health care evaluation • patient access to records • e-mail

This version was published on December 1, 2009

Medical Care Research and Review, Vol. 66, No. 6, 703-724 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1077558709338486


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