Rounds: Will Health Systems Do Anything About Health?

Investments in electronic health record systems, for example, that will be able to identify gaps in care, foster evidence-based medicine, and, hopefully, improve physician-to-physician and physician-to-patient communication.

But providers may only be willing to step so far into the realm of "health" care, which includes a range of services from more robust prevention programs and significant investments in primary care. When it comes down to whether American hospitals will fully evolve into organizations that seek to lead people toward healthy lives, there are many barriers. A few, which I have paraphrased, are:

• Incentives are still not aligned for health systems and hospitals to lead the march.
• Physicians and other community pillars are better positioned and experienced to lead.
• The demand for acute/inpatient care and outpatient procedures is also expected to grow rapidly in the next decade, and that is the demand hospitals must meet.

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