decisions when selecting a health plan, hospital, or clinical practice, or choosing among alternative treatments. This should include information describing the system’s performance on safety, evidence-based practice, and patient satisfaction.

Recommendation 5-2. To facilitate the delivery of coordinated care by primary care, mental health, and substance-use treatment providers, government agencies … should implement policies and incentives to continually increase collaboration among these providers to achieve evidence-based screening and care of their patients with general, mental, and/or substance-use health conditions.

• Federal and state governments should revise laws, regulations, and administrative practices that create inappropriate barriers to the communication of information between providers of health care for mental and substance-use conditions and between those providers and providers of general care.

Rule 4. Shared knowledge and the free flow of information—Patients should have unfettered access to their own medical information and to clinical knowledge. Clinicians and patients should communicate effectively and share information.

Recommendation 5-4. … State governments should create … high-level, continuing linkage mechanisms … to improve collaboration and coordination across their mental, substance use, and general health care agencies,

Aim of timeliness—reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care.

Aim of efficiency—avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.

Rule 10. Cooperation among clinicians—Clinicians and institutions should actively collaborate and communicate to ensure an appropriate exchange of information and coordination of care.