Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Patients choose hospitals based on the quality of the medical care they receive and the hospital’s distance from their home. But what nonclinical criteria do patients value most? The Salud y Gestión blog reviews the findings of a study in The McKinsey Quarterly. The study found that patients rank the following as the most important…
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…
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…
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…
There is an interesting article a few weeks back in the Wall Street Journal (“Opting Out“) which describes the plight of Amish and Old Order Mennonites who refuse to buy health insurance. Further, since these groups also refuse to participate in Medicaid government assistance will not bail them out either. Nevertheless, these societies do have…
The N.Y. Times reports (“Concerned about costs…“) that Congress is trying to impose new restrictions on physician-owned, for-profit hospitals. The legislators fear that these hospitals 1) drive up costs and 2) provide poor quality. Legislators worry that when physicians own the hospital, they may have more of an incentive to order more procedures to increase…
A New Yorker article (“The Checklist“) recounts Peter Pronovost’s efforts to improve the delivery of medical care. One of his simplest ideas was to invent a 5 step checklist to reduce line infections: Doctors are supposed to (1) wash their hands with soap, (2) clean the patientâs skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic, (3) put sterile drapes…