Press Releases

Accelerating Change Today (A.C.T.) For Americaís Health is a new initiative from the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) and the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI). It aims to improve the quality of health care in the United States by:
- Building public awareness of the need for quality improvements
- Identifying innovations and “best practices” in medicine that are yielding better patient care; increasing access to timely medical care; lowering medical costs; making the health system easier to use; and reducing errors and inappropriate care
- Accelerating the spread of best practices throughout the health system
- Changing the culture of medicine to nurture acceptance of best practices and scientifically-based (or “evidence-based”) care.
The initiative, announced September 23, 1998, will comb the nation for exemplary medical practices that can be replicated by doctors and hospitals in other communities. The Coalition and IHI will generate a series of non-technical reports beginning in early 1999. The reports will be widely disseminated and posted on the NCHC and IHI websites.
The following people participated in a news briefing launching A.C.T. and pledged their organizationís support to assure the projectís success.
John Eisenberg, M.D.
Administrator, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, U.S.Department of Health and Human Services
Morton Bahr
President, Communications Workers of America
Kenneth Bloem
CEO, Georgetown University Medical Center, representing the Association of Academic Health Centers
Karen Ignagni
President, American Association of Health Plans
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D.
Member, Board of Regents, American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine
Walter Maher
Director of Public Policy, Chrysler Corporation
Rev. W. Charles Rawlings
Director, Urban Programs and Resources, National Council of Churches
Patricia Smith
Senior Coordinator-Health, American Association of Retired Persons
A NCHC Report:
As Good As It Should Get: Making Health Care Better in the New Millennium By Donald M. Berwick, M.D.
Institute for Health Care Improvement