Today, the ancient Hippocratic admonition to “do no harm” is left up to the individual practitioner. Tomorrow, the safety of each patient will be the responsibility of the entire system. This is as basic a patient right as there can be. It will be the job of each component of the system, in tandem with the others, to ensure that we are safe from harm.

Today, cost reduction is the mantra—cut jobs, services, care. Tomorrow, it will be the tremendous waste of time and material that is cut, freeing valuable resources for what is truly important.

Today’s system reacts too often with a knee jerk and only after an avoidable crisis. Tomorrow’s system will anticipate what we need before we need it. We will be proactive, tracking what works and what doesn’t, heading off crises before they occur.

OBVIOUSLY, OUR AMBITIONS ARE HIGH, as they must be; our goals are grand, as they should be; and we are absolutely certain, as we must be, that we will meet them—because patients themselves tell us that we will. We asked one patient, why pursue perfection?

“Because,” he said, “that way you will achieve as much as you possibly can. If you aim for the top and get halfway there,
you’ve got something which will still make an enormous difference to patients. If you only aim halfway and don’t get there, patients are going to lose out.”(25)

These words echo the Foundation’s pledge to use its resources in the public’s interest. This principle tells us who we are and what we stand for. For myself and my colleagues at the Foundation, these are words to live for and words to live up to. After all, delivering on the promise of better health and better health care for all Americans is what we devote our skills and energies to every day.

Yet, we realize there is more to it than merely showing up for work. Fidelity to principle requires perspective, conduct and action. As our purpose and mission are more evident to us—as we, in fact, pursue our own perfection—we continually learn in new ways how principle shapes our strategies and informs our decisions. It demands persistence and perseverance. And it presents a pathway to a better future. To follow that pathway, this is what we pledge to do:

• We will step forward.
• We will be faithful to our common cause.
• We will seek out diverse partners with the expertise and the will to forge sound new solutions.
• We will not shy away from the difficult or the controversial.
• We will stay on mission until solutions are clear, momentum is generated and progress is secured.

And, finally, we pledge that we will make a difference in our lifetime and yours. This is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s promise. It graces our work, just like the young doctors in that clinic up Route 1. Helping and healing; this too, is what fires the hearts and minds of our staff, our grantees, our funding partners and our family of stakeholders. The reason is as simple as one of my favorite African proverbs:

“Disease and disasters come and go like rain, but health is like the sun that illuminates the entire village.”

We are blessed, indeed, to be following that sun.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A.
President and Chief Executive Officer