Like hospital leaders everywhere, the people running Valley Medical Center in Renton, Wash., talk frequently about the need to control soaring medical costs. "We are working to reduce the overall cost of health care and to transform health care delivery," Lisa Jensen, chairwoman of the hospital's board of trustees, said last year. Experts believe that's a good prescription for the entire U.S. health industry, which costs the economy far more than systems in other developed countries, delivers mediocre results and is widely seen as unsustainable at its current growth rate.
