October 13th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Hospitals that provide the lowest quality care at the highest cost care for more than twice the proportion of elderly minority and poor patients as the nation’s best performers, researchers found. And patients at the “worst” institutions are more likely than patients elsewhere to die of certain conditions, such as heart attacks and pneumonia.
These hospitals and their patients may be the ones most at risk under new Medicare payment arrangements that could cut payments to hospitals that fail to meet quality metrics, reported researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
The researchers examined how quality, costs and patients served correlated among 3,200 hospitals nationwide. They then identified 122 “best” hospitals, those that were in the highest quartile of quality and lowest quartile of risk-adjusted costs, and 178 “worst” hospitals, those in the lowest quartile of quality and the highest quartile of costs.
Hospital quality and performance data were Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
August 31st, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Uncategorized
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I am smacking myself on the forehead and saying, “Why didn’t I think of this?” Dr. Richard Parker, Medical Director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has sent out a list to his physician colleagues of 56 common medical tests and procedures. What is revolutionary is that there are prices next to each item. You non-physicians may be surprised to know that we doctors have no idea what the tests or drugs we order actually cost. Unless we get billed as a patient, we are as clueless as you are.
As I wrote before, the ostrich excuse just won’t fly any more. We all need to be aware of the cost of care and have skin in the game. Some will argue that price can’t be the only driver. I’ve heard physicians say you can’t compare one price to another because “quality” costs more. I say prove it. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
April 10th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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The cost of medical care is high because the human body is complicated and doctors and patients hate ambiguity. The cost is high because a missed diagnosis can lead to death and a large lawsuit. The cost is high because we have many specialists who view the human body in their own tiny pieces and they want to feel 100 percent correct about their piece. Let me give you a real-life example. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
