Priorities and Recommendations
• The merged system will support improved digital accessibility, including improved electronic health record integration, patient digital access, and increased telehealth capacity. • The merged system will provide a plan with milestones for how it will improve coordination between providers within the system so as to ensure improved access and reduce care silos.
› The merged system must identify specific strategies it will implement to mitigate any negative impacts of the merger on cross-provider policy and credentialing.
Recommendations for the IAHS, including Brown University • The IAHS will identify strategies for how it can support its physicians in delivering improved care for the older adult population, through building geriatric capacity, improved community referrals, and care coordination. • In concert with community partners, the IAHS will provide a plan on how it will build trust among communities that have been historically marginalized by the existing healthcare delivery system.*
› This plan must identify and communicate a clear strategy on how the IAHS will work to alleviate the distrust of academic health systems among Rhode Island’s communities of color. › This plan must also include specific strategies for improving cultural competence for employees across the system.
Priority 4: Cost Many of these priorities are interlinked—perhaps most centrally that achieving goals related to equity, access, and quality is simply not possible without addressing the high— and increasing—cost of healthcare. Participants in both the focus groups and community conversations were significantly concerned about the current high-cost of healthcare, and the potential that this merger would lead to increased cost. Community members repeatedly stressed that affordability is a key consideration in the overall quality of care and outcomes. While limiting cost growth and implementing broader payment reform is an issue larger than just the proposed IAHS, given its market power, and given the track record of other 26
