Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I have spent the past four decades as a healthcare executive and consultant – the last 20 of those years working with academic medical centers. It made it especially difficult to watch over the past three months as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the U.S. healthcare provider community.

I have been privileged to work with many dedicated healthcare professionals. The best part of the job was getting to know personally such talented and compassionate clinicians. That compassion and courage have been on full display across the country in the fight against COVID-19.

Yet there is no denying these past weeks have also revealed some of the limitations of the current U.S. healthcare system. A worst-case scenario unfolded in New York, where access to critical healthcare resources was limited. Our country has not previously faced the dilemma of clinicians rationing both supplies and life-saving equipment due to crushing waves of sick patients.

It has also been hard to comprehend how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic produced unprecedented financial carnage among all healthcare providers. While providers were required to ramp up capacity and resources to meet potential COVID-19 patient care, they watched helplessly as huge reductions in other patient volume and net revenue occurred at the same time.

Most recently, old societal wounds have been reopened with terrible incidents of racism that have given our country yet another wakeup call regarding the lack of progress in social justice. That lack of progress has also been reconfirmed in health disparities, by the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths among vulnerable populations including African American, Hispanic and elderly citizens.

At SAG Enterprises, we have been considering how we might contribute to accelerating progress towards social justice for all and to ensuring that the U.S. healthcare system not only survives the current crisis, but emerges as a greatly improved system for the benefit of all.

Our answer is healthcarebigideas.com.

In support of our mission of promoting broader access to more affordable, effective, high-quality healthcare, we hope to use this platform to be both strong advocates for and respectful critics of the U.S. healthcare system and its various stakeholders. We will create an environment for a respectful discussion of the innovative ideas that will move our healthcare system forward.

By communicating our best thinking regarding “big ideas” that could immediately improve on the healthcare status quo, we hope to encourage dialogue regarding those ideas and to help launch other big ideas from all healthcare stakeholders. We understand that there is substantial investment in the status quo, but perhaps the impact of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the new focus on social justice may finally be the impetus for meaningful healthcare reform.

Scott A. Glasrud

President, SAG Enterprises