One of the most important ways to improve our healthcare is to do whatever we can to keep from becoming ill in the first place. Preventive care helps individuals stay healthy, find health problems early when they are most treatable, and maintain a positive quality of life. Unfortunately, studies show that more than half of all Americans do not receive all the preventive services they need. The underuse, overuse and misuse of preventive services can be directly linked to increased health morbidity and mortality.

Patient care in the tri-county area has not been standardized to ensure all patients receive all and only high priority preventive services. Some patients receive more services than are needed; others do not receive services that are known to be effective in preventing illness or diagnosing illness early; and some patients are being provided screening services that are potentially harmful.

Achieving the goal of ensuring patients receive all and only preventive services that are beneficial requires a coordinated effort of the patient and all individuals providing care to the patient who have systems that support their work. Reliance on the individual physician alone to determine which services are effective, including follow-up services that are needed, is not sufficient to provide consistent delivery of these important interventions.

The work of the Preventive Care Team was to develop the processes, tools and other support systems to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of preventive care provided in central Illinois.

Preventive Care Team

Team Lead: John Halvorsen, MD
Black Belts: Stacey Boland and Phil Baer

Team Members: Lori Brown, RN; Cindy Brubaker, PhD; Amy Christison, MD; Don Crane, MD; Jim Crane, MD; Tony Cutinello, MD; Vicki Keller; Rick Luetkemeyer, MD; Denise McWhorter; John Miller, MD; Roberta Parks; Mary Schultz, MD; David Wellman, PhD