Straight talk: new approaches in healthcare. Working toward true excellence: employers press for change.

Although the concept for centers of excellence has been around since the 1980s, few centers are more substantive than a sign on the door. But the marketing-only approach to centers of excellence won't work much longer. That's because employers now are taking a more active role in defining and monitoring the quality and cost of healthcare services. This new breed of proactive employer uses outcomes and other quantitative information to determine which centers truly are places of excellent care at reasonable cost. The Washington-based Leapfrog Group is the most visible example of employer activism in healthcare. Founded in 1999 as a coalition of Fortune 500 companies and purchasing groups, Leapfrog has developed standards to evaluate patient safety at hospitals. It plans to publish on its website consumer-friendly information about how well hospitals meet those standards. In the sixth installment of Straight Talk, we examine the critical elements of a true center of excellence--from both the provider's and employer's points of view. We also talk about the impact Leapfrog might have on the direction these centers take in the future. Modern Healthcare and PricewaterhouseCoopers present Straight Talk. The session on centers of excellence was held on September 10, 2002 at Modern Healthcare'sChicago headquarters. Charles S. Lauer, publisher of Modern Healthcare, was the moderator.