"Most businesses ... are reluctant to manage medical providers as they might other key suppliers. It's different on Puget Sound. Boeing and other major employers here, including Starbucks and Costco, have aggressively pushed local hospitals and doctors to meet the kinds of rigorous standards they use to build airplanes or brew coffee. That has nurtured an unusual relationship between employers and medical centers that has affected the way patients are treated for back pain, how they are counseled for depression, even how they schedule doctors' appointments."  MORE >>