Making America Healthy Again: Healthcare Systems Changes that Will Work.

Cardiovascular and Related Disease Impact Every Cell and Organ in the Body

Our healthcare system is not designed to Make America Healthy Again. It is still focused on rescuing patients very late in the disease process when they already have expensive acute complications like chest pain, heart attack, and stroke. Our guide to improvement, Crossing the Quality Chasm, addresses this directly. “Health care for chronic conditions is very different from care for acute episodic illnesses. Care for the chronically ill needs to be a collaborative, multidisciplinary process.” Multidisciplinary teams focused on related chronic conditions produce the best clinical and financial outcomes. Our system treats chronic diseases late in the process, which is much less effective and much more expensive. It requires large hospital buildings, expensive equipment for inpatient care and testing, and numerous specialists delivering fragmented costly interventions.