The Commonwealth Fund released a brief examining the experiences of three organizations utilizing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Triple Aim Initiative, a program that works with organizations to improve health care quality while reducing per-capita costs.  The brief outlines three cases of organizations that have participated in the program and draws lessons from their experiences.  The authors suggest that as more organizations adopt the goals of the initiative they will develop more effective ways to achieve them.

From the report: In October 2007 the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) launched the Triple Aim initiative, designed to help health care organizations improve the health of a population patients’ experience of care (including quality, access, and reliability) while lowering—or at least reducing the rate of increase in—the per capita cost of care.   Pursuing these three objectives at once allows health care organizations to identify and fix problems such as poor coordination of care and overuse of medical services. It also helps them focus attention on and redirect resources to activities that have the greatest impact on health.

Full report: The Triple Aim Journey: Improving Population Health and Patients' Experience of Care, While Reducing Costs (PDF | 1.15 MB) 

Commonwealth Fund.  (2010).  The triple aim journey: improving population health and patients' experience of care, while reducing costs.  McCarthy, D. and Klein, S.