Include the following in your assessment:
Select two or three health care delivery systems to examine.
Provide a description and relevant details of the selected delivery systems.
Summarize the mission or philosophy statement for each of the health care delivery systems you selected.
Formulate your own mission or philosophy statement, with rationale as to why you chose these elements to include.
Support your statements with appropriate and scholarly sources from the GCU Library or other qualified sources.
Sample Answer
For this assessment, I will examine the Integrated Delivery System (IDS) and the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). Both represent key evolutionary steps toward coordinated care in the U.S. healthcare landscape.
Health Care Delivery System Analysis
1. Integrated Delivery System (IDS)
Description and Relevant Details
An IDS is a network of healthcare organizations, providers, and settings that are clinically and financially linked to provide a full range of healthcare services to a defined population. The hallmark of an IDS is vertical integration, meaning the system owns or manages the different components of care: the health plan (insurance), the providers (physicians/clinics), and the facilities (hospitals, labs, pharmacies).
Relevant Details: Because the system receives a set fee (often a capitated payment) for keeping members healthy, the financial incentive shifts away from high-volume procedures (fee-for-service) toward preventive care and efficiency. Prominent examples include Kaiser Permanente and the Veterans Health Administration (VA).
Mission or Philosophy Summary
The core philosophy of an IDS is aligned incentives for seamless care. The mission is often summarized as:
To provide high-quality, affordable, and comprehensive healthcare services through a coordinated system that focuses on the total health and well-being of the population it serves.
2. Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
Description and Relevant Details
The PCMH is not a physical place but a philosophy of primary care delivery focused on quality, safety, and coordination. It functions as a central hub where a personal physician leads a team of allied health professionals to provide comprehensive, continuous care. The PCMH model is based on five key attributes: comprehensive care, patient-centered care, coordinated care, accessible services, and quality/safety.
Relevant Details: PCMHs are distinct from IDS in that they do not necessarily include the insurer or hospital but are instead recognized and certified by national bodies (like the National Committee for Quality Assurance - NCQA) based on their organizational structure and processes. This model is often promoted to improve outcomes in fragmented FFS systems by emphasizing strong primary care management.
Mission or Philosophy Summary
The PCMH philosophy centers on the patient as an active partner in their own health:
To deliver accessible, coordinated, and continuous primary care services, led by a dedicated team, that is centered around the patient's holistic needs and empowers them to actively participate in their health decisions.
Formulated Mission/Philosophy Statement
My formulated mission statement is designed for a modern healthcare organization that recognizes the need to integrate technology, value, and patient experience:
"To cultivate health equity and human flourishing by delivering personalized, value-driven care through seamlessly integrated, digitally connected interprofessional teams."