A Breast Center Development Fable: Could Service Line Integration Stimulate the Happily Ever After for Breast Health Reform?

Abstract

The most prevalent disease in the American health care industry does not involve major organs and clinical systems, yet it represents the pulse of delivering care to the most vital life source—patients. A “new cancer” has resulted from broken systems attempting to survive in a disease state due to a lack of strategic thinking, absence of service line integration, and minimal focus on prevention. Many health care leaders are the hosts; they lack courage and decision-making in prioritizing programs that temporarily interrupt “cash cow” procedures in favor of less revenue-enhancing interventions that detect disease earlier, prevent its onset, and ultimately save lives. This article addresses the financial treatment guidelines that are needed to reconfigure breast centers in an economy that must balance other competing disease management demands with shrinking dollars and the threat of “in the red” distant disease. Organizations must embrace a new paradigm that results in delayed gratification.