ReThink Health New Jersey
Activities
The purposes of ReThink Health New Jersey are to raise awareness of the lack of sustainability of New Jersey’s health system, catalyze possible opportunities for rethinking the current system and new approaches to change, and empower leaders to act. In the earlier phases of the project, research, communications and convening were employed to begin to accomplish a number of strategic objectives including:
- Elevating the discussion of health care in New Jersey
- Creating momentum for improving it for the future
- Focusing on better health, better care, and lower cost
- Helping key audiences understand their stake and role in improvement
- Reframing the issues around the future of health care and the economic vitality of the state
- Engaging leadership both inside and outside the health care system
- Stimulating discussion of these issues.
The first phase of the initiative centered on an inquiry into the underlying causes of the state of New Jersey’s health system and identified possible ways to address it, resulting in the publication of our report, “When Being #1 Means We Have to Think Differently: The Future of Health Care in New Jersey.” In the second phase, the report was employed as a means of elevating the discussion of health care in New Jersey through meetings, presentations, and the media.
In the next phase, the project will intensify its level of engagement with a cadre of leaders who recognize the imperative for change, have expressed a willingness to become involved, are excited about helping consider what a new vision for health and health care could look like, and ultimately, are committed to developing an action agenda and models in a particular region or across the state. The goal is to model health system change that can be replicated throughout the state and the country.
Among the hypotheses that ReThink Health New Jersey will be testing are:
1. A regional focus on health and care are a pragmatic means of effecting system change, since health care is accessed and delivered locally.
2. The characteristics of New Jersey’s populations offer distinctive opportunities to examine system challenges not typically addressed by system change agents.
3. Freed of their vested interests and institutional constraints, leaders will want to align their vision with their actions and behaviors.
4. Bringing together stakeholders from diverse sectors in an environment of trust and collegiality can break down barriers, create connections, and lead to success.
5. Innovative tools and methodologies from other disciplines, when applied to health, can be effective in empowering leaders to design and implement fundamental change.