In a two-part column in Forbes, Adjunct Professor of Business Administration Gregg Fairbrothers and Catalina Gorla ’09 write about a recent discussion of health care reform they had with James Weinstein, CEO and president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

In part one, Weinstein talks about a challenge facing health care institutions: They have to learn to focus on success and delivering social value, or quality care, at the same time.

“Value to a patient is usually getting to a point where they can get on with their lives without being overly burdened by a health condition. … If the patient and the patient’s care team focus on a simple equation—what’s the right care at the right time—we can drive both success and value at the same time,” Weinstein tells Fairbrothers and Gorla.

In part two, Fairbrothers and Gorla pose a question: “How do you think about success and social value when it’s people’s lives and well-being that are involved?” Weinstein discusses the need for change.

“As leaders in health care, we have to lead change,” he says. He stresses that this depends in part on communication at all levels of a health-care organization about the organization’s goals.

In working toward the ideal health system, Weinstein says, “What I envision is a network of care that goes beyond traditional physician care, and produces health families, healthy infants and children, and keeps us health in our older years. That continuum is what a sustainable health system looks like.”

Read Part One , published 8/14/12 in Forbes.

Read Part Two, published 8/22/12 in Forbes.