The C.E.O. and president of Genesis Health in Davenport was one of two Iowa doctors to participate in the first National Summit on Health Care Quality and Value Monday in Washington, D.C. Doug Cropper says there are a lot of people participating with ideas on improving the healthcare system.
Cropper says one of the most interesting things for him was the 34 organizations on the panel from all over the country that are already doing things, that if they were adopted by the whole United States, could increase quality and decrease costs. Cropper wants the group to think to the future when it comes to new people entering the profession.
Cropper says he’s concerned that they continue to promote the increased supply of primary care physicians, as he says right now in the U-S there are two-thirds specialty physicians to one-third primary care doctors being trained. And Cropper says he wants those new doctors to be trained in the “model of the future” and not today’s model. He says there’s a lot of discussion about the changing nature of medicine.
Cropper says people are talking about key developments in the treatment of chronic disease and other things that can result in as much as 25% decrease in hospitalizations. “So we’re going to need hospitals in the future but we’re going to need a lot more prevention and community health…so I wanna to make sure we promote training and careers in those particular areas,” Cropper says.
The other Iowans at the conventions is Doctor Mike Kitchell of Ames, representing the Iowa Medical Society.
By Phil Roberts, Davenport