Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Does an increase in family physicians (FPs) increase individual health? A naive research might believe that we could uncover whether or not this was true by comparing the average health levels of areas with lots of doctors with the average health levels of areas with few doctors. However, doctors often work where there are lots…
The N.Y. Times writes about how hospitals have standardized patient warning wristbands. Now, red wristbands will denote an allergy risk, yellow will denote a fall risk, and so on. This should be the same at all hospitals, reducing the need to re-train nurses and other hospital staff who move between hospitals. “The drive [to standardize…
In the UK, a dental clinic has opened in a Sainsbury’s grocery store. The grocery store dental clinics aim to fill a patient need caused by the shortage of dentists in the UK. BBC News reports, “Dentist Lance Knight said the practice aimed at “making dental healthcare more accessible and convenient to better meet…
The Running a Hospital blog notes that a physician peer review system is absent in most hospitals. Physicians are only critiqued when something goes wrong. However, this need not be the case. “Our Chief of Neurology, Clif Saper, originated a thoughtful practice… The doctors in his department do randomly assigned reviews of the case notes…
In the N.Y. Times, Sandeep Jauhar discuss the problems with P4P. Hat Tip: Cato-at-Liberty.
The Carpe Diem looks at who is going to retail health care clinics. “Roughly 90% of the patients came for one of 10 relatively simple treatments… ‘Most of the conditions cared for in retail clinics likely do not require the level of training of a physician.’” Insurance companies are starting to support these retail health…
Yesterday I wrote about the problems with fragmented medical care in America. Is a single payer system the only solution? A Commonwealth Fund report shows that the single payer system is not the only path towards improved, more integrated care. What we want The report outlines six general improvements that need to be made to…
The U.S. healthcare system is one of the more fragmented systems in the world. Traditionally, economists believe that a splash of decentralized planning with a heap of free markets is a recipe for efficient outcomes. In the case of health care coordination, however, information sharing, and collaborative work are needed if quality is to improve…
Between 1992 to 2003, the share of public hospitals in Germany has decreased from 45% to 36%, while the proportion of for-profit hospitals rose from 15% to 25%. Is this a good thing? The economic literature has mixed findings with respect to efficiency and ownership structure. In general, economic theory predicts that private ownership is…
A recent Robert Wood Johnson Report (see also press release) finds that uninsured children receive less needed medical care than individuals with health insurance. The report finds that 91% of children who are insured have had a physician visit in the last year compared to only 69% of uninsured children. Seventy seven percent of children…