Healthcare’s new C-suite: Consumers

There is plenty of discussion among the consumer-driven health crowd about where one’s medical home resides these days. Is it part of an integrated delivery system or an institutional entity, such as a mission-driven community hospital? Is it a local doctor or an urgent care center? Some even think a health information Web site, such as WebMD, or an extended social network of family, friends, and experienced patients could function as a medical home. So what makes us, as consumers, seek out different solutions to meet our healthcare needs and provide that medical home? It could be our level of experience, lack of standards, or belief—based on the variability in the delivery of care—that there is no system in healthcare.