Health For Life -- Don't Miss the Health For Life Blog on the Home Page -- the first in a series.

The following is from a series of letters sent to all Saint Vincent Hospital Employees from Charlie Martin, Chairman & CEO Vanguard Health Systems and Joseph Mullany, President & CEO of New England and Chicago

Change
The health care world as we all know it is changing daily.  The change is driven by everything from health care reform to technology and innovation.  But we've come to the conclusion that what happened in Washington has only set the stage for reform.  Changing the health care system itself will take a lot more effort.

Health and Health Care
The Vanguard family of health resources, our hospitals, our staff, our affiliated physicians, our technology and our market presence in four (and maybe, soon to be five) of the largest cities in the country gives us a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the nation a different way to produce health care, but even more importantly a new way to produce health.

Think about it for a minute.  The health care system in America is designed to produce health care -- surgeries, doctor visits, hospital stays, and lab tests.  It produces those services with great skill and relentlessly improving excellence.  But despite all that technology and skill in delivering health care, the United States is one of the least healthy countries in the advanced world.  Even worse, as a nation we spend more than twice what other developed nations spend on health care and get a poorer result.

There are a thousand reasons why Americans spend so much and get such poor health outcomes.  But maybe the biggest reason for this has to do with how we are organized as an industry.  We have an extraordinary opportunity to rearrange our relationship with our customers; that is with patients, with community physicians, with the businesses who purchase health care for their employees and even with the government programs, Medicare and Medicaid, who buy services from us.

Health for Life -- the Vanguard Way
We have started calling the movement "Health for Life -- the Vanguard Way".  Many of you may have heard of Health for Life.  In October we started meeting with the leadership in Worcester and by January we had met with more than 1000 people across all of our markets.  Through these meetings we have re-defined our Values, Our Mission and Our Vision for the future.

WorkMaps
Starting in the next couple of months, each of you will have a change to learn more about this new Health for Life mission.  We have planned a series of sessions to work with all of you to understand the Health for Life movement and your important contributions to it.  You will be invited for an hour and a half session to participate in shaping that vision (some of you may invited to three, half hour sessions to better meet your time schedule).

We are a national company but our strength is built on the quality of our local markets.  Any effort that we make to change Vanguard Health Systems must strengthen and align with your direction and your vision in Worcester.  That is why it is so important for us to share our vision and have it shape and be shaped by yours.  This is the first in a series of four letters we plan to send over the next month or so that will talk about the Health for Life movement.  And we hope you are as enthused about this vision for health and health care as we are.

Promoting Health What's Needed?.pdf
Your Role.pdf
What's Next?.pdf
Culture of Safety.pdf
How to Quit Smoking.pdf
Key Aspects for Employees, Community & Family.pdf