Through the ideas represented by the Hudson Valley Initiative, we believe that health care should be patient-centered, coordinated, accessible, low-cost and high quality.  To achieve this, we believe that communities should support using health information technology in a meaningful way, to improve patient care and validate improvements through research.  When communities move towards an interconnected approach to care enabled by technology, they get more value from the health care system and people live healthier lives.

Nationally, a move for providers to adopt health information technology, like electronic prescribing and health records, is touted as a means to enable change. But the right tools should do more than simply tinker with a broken system. 

Revolutionary health care transformation uses health information technology as a tool. It also means redesigning processes to embrace care coordination, and realigning payments as an incentive for change.

The Hudson Valley Initiative arises from innovative ideas put in motion by visionary leaders with a stake in its success. We envision an ideal health care community known nationwide for ensuring that:

• Care will be coordinated and managed by a primary care team along a continuum that includes specialty, acute and long-term care.
  
• Care will be patient-centered and focused on the needs of the patient and family regardless of payment source.
  
• Consumers, providers, employers and health plans will have timely access to information about patient satisfaction, cost, quality, and appropriateness of care delivered.
  
• Health information technology will be used by clinicians in all settings in a meaningful way to support, measure, evaluate and improve patient care.
  
• Health care financing will be restructured to sustain care delivery models that maximize value.