Program Coaxes Hospitals to See Treatments Under Their Noses | NYT | 12.25.04
The federal government is now telling patients whether their local hospitals are doing what they should.
For now, the effort involves three common and deadly afflictions of the elderly - heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia - and asks about lifesaving treatments that everyone agrees should be given but that hospitals and doctors often forget to give.
The expectation, though, is that this is just the beginning; other diseases, other treatments and surgery are next. Within a few years, individual doctors will be rated as well.
Using incentives like bonus pay and deterrents like public humiliation, it is a bold new effort by the federal government, along with organizations of hospitals, doctors, nurses, and health researchers, to push providers to use proven remedies for common ailments.
And it is a response to a sobering reality: lifesaving treatments often are forgotten while doctors and hospitals lavish patients with an abundance of care, which can involve expensive procedures of questionable value. The results are high costs, unnecessary medicine and wasted opportunities to save lives and improve health. …
The hospital ratings are being done by Medicare and posted on the Internet. …
This is very important! If we are going to cover the 45 million that are disenfranchised from healthcare and offer Medicare drug benefits we must have programs that management both the overuse and underuse of existing healthcare services.
Two EDS ads come to mind: cat herding and building airplanes in the sky.