c o m m u n i t y b y c o m m u n i t y
O R G A N I Z E S Y S T E M S
INTRODUCTION
” Communityship needs to be strengthened in many organizations today.
This does not mean that we have to put it on a pedestal,
in place of leadership. It, too, can be overdone.
After all, witch hunts had their roots in community.
What we need is balance. We would do well, therefore,
to see both forces as working together in a socially responsible way
to get past the insularity that exists in many organizations.
A healthy society balances leadership, communityship, and citizenship. ” (19)
Henry Mintzberg ( 1939 – )
Henry Mintzberg is a professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal. His “The Last Word” Commentary appeared in the July-August 2009 edition of the Harvard Business Review. The citation above is the last paragraph of the Commentary. Can there be any doubt? In one paragraph, he summarizes the essential challenge for the reform of our nation’s healthcare industry.
In 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy spoke about a wide-spread social disturbance, now largely worsening for nearly 50 years, that could destabilize any strategy for healthcare reform that was based on the community. The opening quotation, on the “MINDLESS MENACE …” Sub-Page of the APPENDIX Page, described Senator Kennedy’s view of the pervasive violence occurring throughout our land. Although healthcare reform is the primary focus for NATIONAL HEALTH, the indirect motives for healthcare reform could also be its support for “A healthy society” and a related reduction in the “mindless menace of violence” with its adverse effects on the Family of each citizen throughout our nation’s, community neighborhoods.
This Global Task, ORGANIZE SYSTEMS, defines the leadership structure for the governance that would direct the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH as it promotes “communityship and citizenship” for the reform of our nation’s healthcare. The cornerstone of our nation’s Survival Commons, its healthcare for each citizen, requires a paradigm shift. This level of renewal must withstand many sources of turmoil, not just the pervasive violence in our neighborhoods. The degree of human goodness and strength to promote change already exists in every community. We must seek it out and remind our neighbors and Extended Families about the fundamental strength that exists in every community to achieve Stable HEALTH For All Citizens. The current state of our nation’s healthcare is in a high degree of disrepair. The renewal of healthcare must be considered systematically, beginning with Primary Healthcare that is equitably available to and ecologically accessible by every citizen.
LEADERSHIP
If this Initiative has an attribute open to honest differences of opinion, it is its process for selecting the initial and permanent leadership to represent the spectrum of appropriate vested interests required for its governance. Also, choosing the optimum size for a group of individuals to successfully govern an institution is not clearly understood. I have chosen nine. Given these uncertainties, the nine Members for the Board of Trustees of NATIONAL HEALTH would each represent, respectively, one of nine groupings of states. Each group of States would encompass a roughly equal population of approximately 34,000,000 citizens. The resulting nine groupings of one or more states would coincide with regionally shared, social and geographic characteristics. Each regional group would have its own Regional Council to assist the Board of Trustees in an advice and consent relationship.
Eventually, the nine Regional Councils would each establish nine District Coalitions, formed to promote the existence of enhanced Primary Healthcare for approximately 4 million citizens. The 81 District Coalitions would each promote a locally driven formation of nine or more Community HEALTH Forums for the citizens within their District. The functions of each Forum would be supported through technical assistance by the Associates, i.e. staff employees, of their respective District Coalition. Each Forum would serve a community of between 100,000 and 700,000 citizens, depending on the geographic size and its population density. All together the nearly 800 Forums would each promote social capital as a basis to define a Community HEALTH Plan, annually updated, for assuring that equitably available Primary Healthcare existed for each citizen. Eventually, the nearly 800 Community HEALTH Plans would specify the development of HEALTH SECURITY certified Primary Healthcare throughout their community.
The initial Members of the Board of Trustees and Regional Councils would be selected by a temporary, expedient process. This would involve a Governor from the state or group of states associated with each Regional Council. When all of the District Coalitions within a Region have been operational for two full years, the permanent process for selecting each of the Members for that Regional Council would begin. Once the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH had stabilized, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees would recommend an applicant to become its President and Chief Executive Officer. The President/CEO would function as an ex officio Member of the Board of Trustees as defined by an Operational Statement approved by the Board of Trustees. Most importantly, the combined Membership of the District Coalitions, Regional Councils and Board of Trustees would achieve the requisite experience for the continuous acquisition of leadership skills throughout NATIONAL HEALTH.
The Initiative requires NATIONAL HEALTH to prepare an annual report for the President and Congress. The annual report would be the basis for proposing any new Congressional action that may be necessary to resolve any barriers to reform encountered by NATIONAL HEALTH. Optimally, these requests would not be controversial and would represent widely supported improvements in the reform process for our nation’s healthcare industry.
Locally connected leadership will be a special requirement for each Forum as they formulate a Community HEALTH Plan to sponsor equitably available Primary Healthcare for each citizen. This Plan would 1) eventually specify Primary Healthcare that has achieved HEALTH SECURITY certification and 2) avoid unintended, but potentially divisive, problems associated with provider panels, community anti-trust, intellectual property, neighborhood service areas, physician career commitments or population shifts.
The basis for the Community HEALTH Plans may eventually require Congressional clarification given the risk of either inaction or anti-competitive activities. As the benefits of enhanced Primary Healthcare begin to mature, the nearly 800 Forums would focus the their Community HEALTH Plans on other community HEALTH problems. These would include a consideration of the current community-wide participation in the local, regional and national pre- and post-disaster preparedness. The vast majority of disasters are knowable, except for their exact location, strength and timing. In one sense, the process of preparedness for the knowable disasters is the most important means to promote the resilience for responding appropriately to the disasters that are not substantially for-see-able, such as an Influenza pandemic.
Eventually, each of the annually revised @800 Community HEALTH Plans would comprise three sections. The fist Section would detail the character of its Primary Healthcare: its level of availability as assured cooperatively by its local institutions, its prevalence of HEALTH SECURITY Certification, and its anticipated future augmentation needs. The second Section would describe the community’s most prominent adversities that are amenable to the use of collective action for their reduction or stabilization, such as: 1) early childhood education, 2) adolescent health (suicide, addiction, STD ), 3) pain control or 4) homelessness. Finally, the third Section would describe the readiness of the community’s ability to mitigate before, during or after a disaster event including the steps in place to maintain this readiness. A nationally sanctioned effort, community by community, to maintain these Community HEALTH Plans might be the most important benefit of healthcare reform as it helps each community revitalize the importance of each citizen’s Extended Family and their Family Traditions for a citizen’s Stable HEALTH. The national benefit occurring from having all communities using the same strategy may be it most important attribute for focusing more clearly the community’s continued support of its social capital for each community’s Survival Commons.
GOVERNANCE
The top two levels of governance would be established based on a plan described within the Congressional Charter and initiated by the President. A Sub-Page of the GOALS Page describes one model for selecting the initial MEMBERS the Board of Trustees. The President, or a designee, would preside over the initial Meeting of the Board of Trustees at a location defined by the Congressional Charter. Presumably, the initial MEETING would 1) select its Officers and 2) establish the structure and content of the initial OPERATIONAL STATEMENTS including General Operating Principles and an initial Strategic Projects Plan. A possible model for these two OPERATIONAL STATEMENTS can be found as Sub-Pages of the GOALS Page.
CONGRESSIONAL CHARTER PROVISIONS FOR THIS GLOBAL TASK
A. The Congressional Charter shall define the initial V I S I O N for the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH beginning with the initial Meeting of the Board of Trustees.
[ COMMENT: For the first ten years, “Stable HEALTH For Each Citizen” could represent its V I S I O N. And, its VALUES could be: ALTRUISM, TRUST, COOPERATION, RECIPROCITY and EXCELLENCE. ]
B. The Congressional Charter shall require NATIONAL HEALTH to establish and maintain three national projects to support healthcare reform AND to implement a new strategy for achieving community based collective action for promoting its own needs, especially for Primary Healthcare. The three national projects, the new strategy and three GOALs shall be achieved within 10 years after the initial Meeting of the Board of Trustees.
1. The three national projects shall be:
a. a PRIMARY HEALTHCARE BENEFITS PLAN that defines
the minimum benefits to be covered by all financial sources
for the reimbursement of health care provided to any citizen
for their Basic Healthcare Needs including the options applicable
for the augmented support of HEALTH SECURITY certified
Primary Healthcare.
[ COMMENT: This will likely take several years to finish. The use of multiple layers as a basis for recognizing regional and community institutional needs may be an important attribute of this PLAN to assure its local and regional acceptance as an important contribution to the overall reform of our nation’s healthcare industry. A broad base of public support will be necessary for the successful completion of the PLAN. Furthermore, the legitimate concerns about change must be engaged responsively given the complex, institutional and economic traditions involved. ]
b. a PRIMARY PHYSICIAN EDUCATION PLAN that
describes the career-long training systems necessary to assure the availability
of Primary Physicians as required by the PRIMARY
HEALTHCARE BENEFITS PLAN, and
[ COMMENT: As in “a.” above, an initially slow then rapidly evolving means to support and focus the efforts of our nation’s medical schools will be most important. The initial drafts of the PLAN should focus especially on defining a physician’s basic skill-set required for Primary Healthcare. This preparedness should include, especially, the technical and emotional adaptability for managing the breadth and depth of daily uncertainty associated with a person’s Basic Healthcare Needs. This uncertainty is driven by the high level of genetic and sociodemographic diversity underlying each person’s HEALTH that is largely unknowable at the time of any healthcare encounter.
In addition, this PLAN would specify and implement a coordinated Post-graduate medical education process for all Primary Physician’s of all HEALTH SECURITY certified, Primary Healthcare clinics. Its coordination with the appropriate specialty certification Boards would be most important. A continuing process of accommodating the combined changes regarding HEALTH within the world-wide realms of its Resources, Knowledge and Human Dignity will be necessary for the Primary Healthcare offered within each community. ]
c. a set of criteria necessary for any Primary Healthcare clinic to qualify for the
HEALTH SECURITY CERTIFICATION PLAN as the basis for its augmented
financial support;
[ COMMENT: The criteria should create a process that recognizes a clinic’s initial commitment for change as a basis for immediately improved reimbursement. Subsequently, the annual level of increasing achievement for continued Certification would be defined for a span of 3-5 years. As NATIONAL HEALTH matures, the initial “professional, non-economic buy-in” phase could be shortened to 1-2 years. The District Coalitions would monitor the Certification process. NATIONAL HEALTH would use its own resources as may be required for this monitoring. ]
2. The new strategy shall be to:
a. sponsor locally driven, community solutions for the equitable availability of enhanced
Primary Healthcare that is also ecologically accessible,
justly efficient and reliably effective for each citizen,
b. promote the use of collective action as a community by community tradition
to augment its locally resilient Survival Commons, and
b. promote the NATIONAL HEALTH VALUES as a general standard
for all levels of the healthcare industry. AND
3. Three GOALs shall be achieved within ten years or by its substantially steady progress to:
a. reduce our nation’s annualized health spending to 13.0% or less
of our nation’s gross domestic product,
b. reduce the annualized national maternal mortality ratio by 70%, and
c. achieve ratification of the Congressional Charter by all States.
[ COMMENT: This would be more likely if at least 30 of the States ratified the Congressional Charter for NATIONAL HEALTH within its first 4 years. The GOALs outcome year shall be the calendar year following ten full years of operational status following the initial Meeting of the Board of Trustees. ]
C. The Board of Trustees shall have the sole authority and responsibility to carry out the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH as defined by the Congressional Charter. The Board of Trustees shall:
1. establish its affairs according to the Congressional Charter;
[ COMMENT: A Sub-Page of the GOALS Page describes one alternative for inclusion within the Congressional Charter as a basis to appoint the Membership for the initial MEETING of the Board of Trustees. ]
2. have a non-voting Member selected within three years by the Chairman and approved by the Board
of Trustees for a term of 5 years as the President and Chief Executive Officer
of NATIONAL HEALTH with eligibility for an additional 5 years;
[ COMMENT: The initial Chairman may be a logical choice for this responsibility during the first 3 years. The oversight role of the President and Congress should be defined within the Congressional Charter. ]
3. have 9 Members appointed temporarily that are replaced according to
a permanent selection process;
4. have 9 Members appointed permanently beginning 3 years after the initial MEETING
to include at least 5 overlapping Members:
a. one Member selected by the Members of each Regional Council and approved
by the Board of Trustees for equally overlapping terms
of 9 years from their respective Regions,
b. select a Chairman from the current Members, having at least four years remaining
as a Member and
c. select a Vice-Chairman, having at least two more years remaining as a Member,
by a vote of the Members every two years beginning the third year
after the initial MEETING;
5. establish the Regional Councils according to the following nine groupings of States:
[ COMMENT: For this NATIONAL HEALTH, I have taken the actual year of Statehood among the States of each respective Regional grouping to determine an average. A rank ordering of these Regions recognizes the earliest versus the later, year of Statehood groupings of States. The protectorates are not included in the average. ]
a. Region 1 East – 1787: Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787),
Maryland (1787), Delaware (1788), District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands;
b. Region 2 North East – 1794: Massachusetts (1787), New York (1788),
Connecticut (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Rhode Island (1790),
Vermont (1791), Maine (1820);
c. Region 3 South East – 1804: Georgia (1788), Virginia (1788),
South Carolina (1788), North Carolina (1789), West Virginia (1863);
d. Region 4 Central – 1806: Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796),
Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Missouri (1821);
e. Region 5 South Central – 1826: Louisiana (1812), Mississippi (1817), Alabama (1819),
Arkansas (1836), Florida (1845);
f. Region 6 North Central – 1841: Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Iowa (1846),
Wisconsin (1848), Minnesota (1858);
g. Region 7 West – 1850: California (1850);
h. Region 8 South West – 1898: Texas (1845), Oklahoma (1907), Arizona (1912),
New Mexico (1912); and
i. Region 9 North West – 1908: Oregon (1859), Kansas (1861), Nevada (1864),
Nebraska (1867), Colorado (1876), Montana (1880), North and South Dakota (1889),
Washington (1889), Wyoming (1890), Idaho (1890), Utah (1896),
Alaska (1959), Hawaii (1959), the residents of Samoa and Guam;
6. having a requirement for each Member of the Board of Trustees
that reflects expertise of applicable experience for at least 25 years:
a. five Members as medical doctors with three Members as a Primary Physician,
b. one Member as an independent mental health practitioner who is
not a medical doctor,
c. one Member as an epidemiologist, and
d. two others Members as necessary for long-term leadership, especially with
professional skills associated with ethics and collective action;
7. Establish an Operational Statement for the affairs of the Regional Councils
whose Members are selected from Nominees recommended
by a District Coalition to the Governor of the Region’s State
with the best level of healthcare accessibility;
[ COMMENT: The Membership requirements of each Regional Council would be similar to the Board of Trustees. ]
8. Establish an Operational Statement for the affairs of the District Coalitions
limiting their responsibilities to a group, on average, of 3-5 million citizens
residing within the group of States served by their respective Regional Council:
a. A District Coalition may have a portion of their citizens living
in two States as long as the two States belong to the same
Regional Council,
b. The Members shall be appointed for equally overlapping terms of nine years
by the applicable Regional Council with Members to include:
i. three Primary Physicians,
ii. one Registered Nurse from a HHS sponsored Community
Health Center
iii. one from a community public health department,
[ COMMENT: This candidate must have at least a Master of Science Degree, preferably in Public Health. ]
iv. one from a medical school,
[ COMMENT: The candidate must have had leadership responsibility for curriculum development associated with medical student education. ]
v. three from the community, and
[ COMMENT: These three might be selected from those counties of a State divided into three levels of population density. ]
vi. one non-voting, full-time, administrative
support person; AND
[ COMMENT: This person might assume the role of the Vice-Chairman. The person would be appointed by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for a five-year term and be eligible for an additional 5-year reappointment. ]
c. Each District Coalition will establish an Operational Statement
for the affairs of their Community HEALTH Forums as
approved by their respective Regional Council.
[ COMMENT: Each Community HEALTH Forum would 1) serve contiguous geographic areas within a District Coalition’s boundary, 2) generally respect county borders and 3) be responsible initially for promoting the equitably available Primary Healthcare needs of between 100,000 to 600,000 citizens. ]
9. Establish an Operational Statement for notifying the Board of Trustees
Chairman in case of a vacancy for any Member’s appointment.
A vacancy shall be declared as a result of a majority decision
by the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the current Member
with the longest length of appointment to the related
Board of Trustees, Regional Council or District Coalition; AND
10. Locate the home office for the Board of Trustees, Regional Council,
District Coalition or Community HEALTH Forum based on the
same criteria and establish the initial home office for NATIONAL
HEALTH at St. Louis, Missouri:
a. equitable travel distance among each division’s citizens,
b. equitable travel distance to a medical school or
school of public health, and
c. equitable travel distance to a state’s legislature.
[ COMMENT: The Board of Trustees shall establish an Operational Statement for the home office locations and periodically revise the Operational Statement at least every ten years. In 2010, a geographic location southwest of St. Louis about half-way between St. Louis and Springfield and close to the city of Plato, Missouri represented the population center for our nation. ]
D. While maintaining regular consultation with the Regional Councils, the Board of Trustees shall manage the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH based on an annually revised Strategic Projects Plan approved by the Board of Trustees. The regular consultation with the Regional Councils shall at least involve official review of any Policy or Procedure for the first time and subsequently, for any revision, if the Board of Governors retained final Approval Authority of a previously approved Operational Statement.
[ COMMENT: A preliminary draft for the initial Strategic Projects Plan can be found as a GOALS Sub-Page. ]
E. After consultation with each Regional Council, the Board of Trustees at any time may authorize its Chairman to submit a request to the President for a Congressional revision of existing Federal Regulations or laws for the purpose of improving the ability of NATIONAL HEALTH to implement its Congressional Charter. This authority may include proposals for a change in the Congressional Charter for NATIONAL HEALTH excluding any authority to participate in the direct financial reimbursement or any other form of direct economic support for the health services of a citizen.
F. All institutions interacting with NATIONAL HEALTH will recognize a single definition for Primary Healthcare as may be defined by NATIONAL HEALTH.
[ COMMENT: A preliminary definition of Primary Healthcare can be found on the DEFINITIONS Sub-Page of the OVERVIEW Page. ]
G. The Board of Trustees shall authorize the Chairman to propose an Operational Statement for the format to establish the Policies and Procedures of NATIONAL HEALTH. These Operational Statements shall use polycentric and derivative concepts as a basis for governance. The Board of Trustees shall retain ultimate responsibility for the affairs of NATIONAL HEALTH as defined by the Congressional authorization. The Board of Trustees may delegate certain of these responsibilities to its Chairman or to the Regional Councils.
[ COMMENT: A sample Operational Statement for the GENERAL OPERATING PRINCIPLES can be found on a GOALS Sub-Page. ]
H. Decisions of the Board of Trustees, Regional Councils and District Coalitions shall require a quorum of 5 Members. Any Meeting of a Community HEALTH Forum may not occur without 5 Advocates, or a designee, present.
I. Three years prior to restarting the Nine Region sequence for appointing Members to the Board of Trustees, the Chairman shall initiate a reconsideration of criteria for assessing the level of healthcare accessibility for each State. Initially, it shall be its maternal mortality ratio as measured over a 10 year interval.
[ COMMENT: As of 2016, the data most recently available was for the years 2005 through 2014. ]
J. The deliberations of the Board of Trustees, Regional Councils and District Coalitions shall follow “Roberts’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised” except when the Chairman declares a temporary Open Collaboration form of deliberation. Each Community HEALTH Forum shall follow an Open Collaboration form of deliberation.
[ COMMENT: No Forum would have the authority to directly implement any plan. Their role will reflect only an effort to attain consensus and shared responsibility among the principle stakeholders within their community. ]
K. The Board of Trustees shall establish an Operational Statement for Special Meetings applicable to itself, the Regional Councils and District Councils. This Operational Statement shall also provide for
1. the Notice and Limited Agenda Subjects of any closed Special Meeting and
2. any requirements for independent observers.
L. The Board of Trustees shall initiate a planning Task Force to assess the future evolution of NATIONAL HEALTH starting five years after the initial Meeting of the Board of Trustees and every ten years thereafter. Any possible changes proposed to Congress for the Congressional Charter of NATIONAL HEALTH shall be implemented within 5 years of its initial consideration.
