We Went to Oxford and Got Schooled in Primary Health Care

As other countries continue to spend far less on health care but perform better on measurable health outcomes, there’s opportunity to learn what works abroad and apply those lessons stateside.

Oxford University

It’s a hard notion for many Americans to accept–although we spend more money on health care than any other country in the world, we are far from having the best health outcomes. When you look at measures that include life expectancy, infant mortality rates and preventable illness, other countries that spend far less than the U.S. perform better. But in many of these countries people of all ages and socio-economic status are able to easily access primary care that is comprehensive, patient-centered and rooted in local communities.

One of our goals as program officers at RWJF is to look beyond our borders to identify promising practices that might be incorporated into America’s health care system. Last fall we traveled to Oxford, England, to learn first-hand about promising primary care practices in Chile, England, the Netherlands and Canada–all high and middle income countries that spend less on health care yet have better outcomes than the U.S. We attended a conference organized by the Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC), an organization supported by Charities Aid Foundation of America through a grant from the RWJF Donor-Advised Fund. TARSC provides support and training to government and civic health organizations, and the conference was the next step after its report, "Strengthening primary care in the USA to improve health: Learning from high and middle income countries." We came away with a lot of insights from both, but were struck by several themes that were constant throughout.

by Maryjoan Ladden, Susan Mende

Full article at: http://www.rwjf.org/en/culture-of-health/2015/04/we_went_to_oxfordan.html?rid=5FOKxz4Ptsid-aTu-tfaf6ii9vSDW9q8wzU6NKitCbc&et_cid=239858