Proactive healthcare organizations strengthen key relationships.

Many providers have already become facilitators of reform by enhancing their organizations' key relationships—with patients, physicians, and the community. Healthcare professionals recently gathered in Chicago at a conference of the Academy for Health Services Marketing to discuss their organizations' efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare delivery system. One healthcare organization has transformed its relationship with its patients through patientfocused care; another is working more closely with its physicians to involve them in administrative issues.