Published: August 06, 2008 10:59 am         

Hospital officials speak at national health care debate

Goshen Center for Cancer joined the national health care debate this week with its integrated model to be included in discussion on high value care designed to shape healthcare reform at a national level.

At the invitation of former Sen. Bob Dole, Goshen Health System’s President and Chief Executive Officer James O. Dague and Dr. Doug Schwartzentruber, medical director of the Center for Cancer Care, were presenters at a national health care forum Monday at the Dole Center on the Kansas University Campus in Lawrence, Kan.

Dague and Schwartzentruber sat on a panel addressing ways to empower patients to access and effectively use high value care. Together they highlighted the unique qualities of the cancer center from its multidisciplinary approach to cancer center-salaried physicians to the integrated, team approach that ensures efforts are not being duplicated and that the patient is getting the best treatment possible in one location without having to visit multiple doctors or specialists.

Dole’s invitation was extended after he visited Goshen in June as the keynote speaker at the cancer center’s annual program to honor cancer survivors, True Celebration.

“Goshen Center for Cancer Care strives to deliver the highest value care possible through the daily collaboration of the doctors and staff to map out the best treatment options for our patients. It’s an honor that Sen. Dole recognized the effectiveness of the model we have in place,” Dague said. “Our hope is that what we’ve learned at the cancer center about patient care can be used as tool by others to ensure patients across the country are getting the best care available.”

This health care forum hosted by Sen. Dole, meant to explore ways to ensure and promote a strong individual role in health care, is just one of four such forums being conducted this year across the country.

Having seen many legislative battles over health care in their careers, Sen. Dole has partnered with fellow former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders, Republican Howard Baker of Tennessee, and Democrats Tom Daschle of South Dakota and George Mitchell of Maine, in launching the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Leaders’ Project on the State of American Health Care.

The project is an effort to produce policy recommendations that address the delivery, cost, coverage, and financing challenges facing the nation’s health care system.

Each of the four leaders planned a forum in their home state to address four key topics, or “pillars,” of health care reform: preserving and improving quality and value of care; providing affordable, accessible coverage choices in a reformed insurance market; ensuring and promoting a strong individual role in health care coverage and costs; and securing a workable financing mechanism for health care.

Sen. Daschle’s forum on improving the quality and value of healthcare in April included such panel members as the president and CEO of Mayo Clinic and the director of the Congressional Budget Office.

“Goshen Health System and Goshen Center for Cancer Care are honored to participate in this effort alongside Senators Dole, Daschle, Mitchell and Baker as they work to develop policy recommendations for the nation’s healthcare system,” Dague said. “It is a humbling invitation and we take seriously this offer to join the discussion as we look ahead at the difficult issues on the healthcare horizon.”

A video, transcript and podcast of the forum will be available on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Web site at www.bipartisanpolicy.org.