The Medical Professionalism Blog
Tag Archives: sustainability
The Words Used to Talk About Use of Resources: What Do They Tell Us?
The words we use to talk about the use of health care resources makes a difference in how we engage physicians, clinicians and patients in thoughtful discussion around the economic sustainability of the current health care system. These conversations must happen — without hysteria and political motivation. We need attitudinal and political changes before we [...]
Recommended Reading: March 16-23
How can we address our nation’s spiraling health care costs? This week’s Recommended Reading offers several potential solutions: As Ezra Klein reports, Victor Fuchs and Ezekiel Emanuel have proposed cutting the length of medical training by 30 percent, thereby reducing physician debt and allowing space for more physicians to be trained. The Wall Street Journal [...]
Doctors, Not Financial Engineers
Costs of Care (Twitter: @CostsOfCare), where this post was originally published, is a Boston-based, non-profit organization that helps caregivers deflate medical bills and provide high value care. As part of the 2011 Costs of Care Essay Contest, more than 100 anecdotes were shared by patients and providers around the country that illustrate the role of cost-awareness [...]
Recommended Reading: March 3-8
This week’s Recommended Reading articles highlight several factors that are driving our nation’s ever-increasing health care costs: According to Ezra Klein, high prices are the main reason that U.S. health care is so much costlier than in other countries. He cites a recent International Federation of Health Plans study which shows that Americans pay more [...]
Where, Oh Where Do Physicians Learn About Cost-Effectiveness?
The Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) defines the Triple Aim as: Better health (population health) Better care (quality improvement) Reduced cost Although many quality improvement organizations and delivery systems are focused on the Triple Aim, cost is not often a part of their efforts.
Recommended Reading: February 22 – March 2, 2012
Recent articles have focused on overuse of medical tests and procedures, particularly among older adults: Is ignorance bliss? In a New York Times op-ed, H. Gilbert Welch writes, “The truth is, the fastest way to get heart disease, autism, glaucoma, diabetes, vascular problems, osteoporosis or cancer … is to be screened for it. In other [...]
Cost Awareness in Health Care: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Costs of Care, where this post was originally published, is a Boston-based nonprofit organization that helps caregivers deflate medical bills and provide high-value care. Learn more at www.CostsOfCare.org or follow them on Twitter (@CostsOfCare). “Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo
Recommended Reading – February 13-17, 2012
This week, journal articles abounded on the potential contributors to health care costs. What’s patient satisfaction, defensive medicine or treatment guidelines got to do with it? Read some of the latest studies and see what you think:
Trying to Make Professionalism Real And Parsimonious
There has been a lot of both positive and negative reaction by physicians and others to the recently released American College of Physicians (ACP) Ethics Manual that states: “Physicians have a responsibility to practice effective and efficient health care and to use health care resources responsibly. Parsimonious care that utilizes the most efficient means to [...]
Putting the Charter into Practice Grantee: Johns Hopkins Bayview
This is the fourth in a series of posts written by the ABIM’s Foundation’s Putting the Charter into Practice grantees, which describes their motivation to pursue projects related to stewardship of resources. Based on past experiences, both my co-investigator, Marc Larochelle, and I had an interest in improving stewardship of health care resources. Our paths [...]
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