Team-based care is the path to the future, Jack Cochran, MD, executive director of the Permanente Federation, told Sunday’s morning plenary session.

Cochran cited example after example of how team-based care has improved outcomes for Kaiser Permanente patients, from reducing cardiac mortality rates in Colorado to increasing breast cancer screenings in Southern California and Hawaii—to the point of having the best screening rates in the country.  

The American system of delivering health care is seriously out of whack, Dr. Cochran told the attendees at the 2010 Union Delegate Conference, in part because fee-for-service doesn’t provide a financial incentive to keep patients healthy. Kaiser Permanente has the answer on that front—and is also ahead of the game in electronic medical records and, critically, in creating a new model where health care is delivered by a team. 

“We’ve learned how to take information and use it in teams, ask new questions and deliver care differently,” Dr. Cochran said. “The future is in learning and leading.” 

Dr. Cochran reminded the delegates that President Obama has held KP up as a model to be copied and that there is a tremendous opportunity to show the nation how quality health care can and should be delivered. 

“We have the podium,” he said. “We have such an obligation….Build better teams and, please—take the burden home with you.” 

"If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere, and should be done everywhere."