FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      
July 20, 2009

Contact:
Cheri Russum, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, 425-304-0591
April Zepeda, The Everett Clinic, 425-304-1139
Eric Earling, Premera Blue Cross, 425-918-3297

Local Healthcare Leaders Invited to Participate in Healthcare Symposium in Washington DC 

Providence Regional Medical Center, The Everett Clinic and Premera leadership to address policy makers on providing low-cost, high-quality healthcare

Everett, WA – David Brooks, Providence Regional Medical Center CEO, Harold Dash, MD, Board President of The Everett Clinic, and Rich Maturi, Senior Vice President of Premera Blue Cross, have been asked to participate in  a symposium on July 21 in Washington DC entitled, “How Do They Do That? Low-Cost, High-Quality Health Care in America.”

The symposium will be moderated by four of the country’s most celebrated health care improvement experts:

• Donald M. Berwick, MD, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Elliott Fisher, MD, Director, Population Health and Policy, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
• Atul Gawande, MD, Director, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health; Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health
• Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings.

The Everett delegation is one of ten healthcare communities in the United States invited to share their experiences.  The goal is to build awareness among the public and policy-makers that successful models for achieving high-quality care at significantly reduced cost already exist in many regions and in many forms throughout America.

The symposium will examine the local, regional, and national factors – including culture, finance, delivery structures, and more – that underlie the ability of certain communities to provide low-cost, high-quality health care. At the symposium, the visiting teams and moderators will exchange ideas and summarize what they have learned from one another (including commonalities and differences) during a closed morning working session.

In the afternoon session, participant , members of the media and other guests will engage in a discussion about the potential for more communities in the United States to approach the level of performance reached by some of the most successful regions, especially as national health reform takes shape. Panelists will discuss both delivery system designs and implications for state and national policy, and audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of participants

The ten regions invited to attend the symposium include:

• Asheville, NC
• Cedar Rapids, IA
• Everett, WA
• La Crosse, WI
• Portland, ME
• Richmond, VA
• Sacramento, CA
• Sayre, PA
• Tallahassee, FL
• Temple, TX

ADDITIONAL MEDIA CONTACTS:

Jessie duPont
Goodman Media International
jdupont@goodmanmedia.com
(212) 576-2700, ext. 223
Cell: (203) 536-3957

Madge Kaplan
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
mkaplan@ihi.org