Excerpts from the Globe’s health care blog.

Neponset Health Center opened a pharmacy about a year ago. The center has a staff of social workers who connect patients, as needed, to an in-house food pantry, substance abuse services, and even furniture for children. And it has integrated primary care and behavioral health services.

Bill Corr, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, visited the Dorchester center Dec. 5 to see a model of some of the programs the Affordable Care Act is aimed at implementing nationwide.

“It’s so valuable to get out of Washington to see the actual programs,’’ he said. “We need to pilot these things. We’re being very thorough in evaluating them, ensuring that they meet important quality measures and then spread[ing] the information about how to do a better job.’’

But how do you take the successes in single communities or individual health centers and replicate them nationally?

“One step at time,’’ Corr said.

“It will take time,’’ he said. “It starts with ample coverage for everyone, as Massachusetts has now. That enables providers to take care of people where they need to be taken care of.’’

Majestic change tips

Dr. Don Berwick often speaks of the Affordable Care Act as a majestic law. The recently departed administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spoke Wednesday at the annual conference of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge. He talked about the steady pace of progress, visiting the Lincoln Memorial at age 12, the addition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s name to the monument, and King’s famous speech there.

“When I first stood at that spot, the Montgomery bus boycott was only three years in the past, and Dr. King’s speech lay five years in the future,’’ he said. “I thought, standing there, of something I once heard Dr. Joseph Juran say: ‘The pace of change is majestic.’ And I mused about that majesty.’’

Berwick outlined five principles for health care change:

■Put the patient first.

■Among patients, put the poor and disadvantaged first, “those in the beginning, the end, and the shadows of life.’’

■Start at scale. “There is no more time left for timidity. [Pilot programs] will not suffice.’’

■Return the money. “It is crucial that the employers and wage-earners . . . who actually pay the health care bill see that bill fall.’’

■Act locally. Every community must mobilize.