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New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President and CEO Dr. Ram Raju wants to double MetroPlus Health Plan membership to 1 million, and grow consumer base to 2 million. Addressing an audience of over 300 HHC employees, labor partners and other community stakeholders at John Jay College in Manhattan on April 7, Raju described his vision for securing the essential role of the nation’s largest public health care system. He called on HHC employees to focus on improving patient experience in order to expand access to care and the patient base, secure financial stability and preserve its mission to serve all New Yorkers without exception.
Raju highlighted several of HHC’s successes and challenges, including the need for new sources of revenue to replace decreasing federal funding to care for the uninsured and undocumented. He also announced new goals for 2020 to double HHC’s MetroPlus health plan membership to 1 million and increase the number of New Yorkers served by the health system from 1.4 million annually to 2 million, a HHC press release said.
“In order to continue carrying out our mission, we need financial stability. To secure that financial stability, we need to grow our patient base and serve more New Yorkers. And to grow our patient base, we need to retain the consumers we already serve and we must attract new patients and families into our healthcare system,” Raju said.
“There is one common thread that ties all these goals together. One fundamental component to make all this happen. And that’s our ability — our singular ability — to extend the very best experience possible to our patients and their families,” he said. “We need to own every patient’s experience. We need to put ourselves in their shoes every day, every time. And make sure we do no less than what we would expect for ourselves, for our families, for our mothers and our own children.”
He further urged staff to build on their unique position as a diverse, compassionate workforce, and cited attitude and philosophy as the keys to improving patient experience. He called each patient interaction an opportunity to build credibility as a place where patients are treated superbly. He cited access to care as also critical, reiterating a goal to reduce wait times for adult primary care appointments by over half. He also called for continued improvement of staff training and development. “Because a positive patient experience is not possible without a positive employee experience,” he added.
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