Better Business
I normally don't find the Business section of the paper to be the most enthralling bit. In truth I often skip the Business section and go straight to the Arts section for the crossword puzzle. Today's Thursday though so I'm unlikely to be able to finish the crossword and thus the rest of the paper becomes much more interesting.
And today, the Business section was fascinating. Sony is hemorrhaging money, Amazon.com is going to start selling digital music (unprotected digital music), and there's a hospital in Pennsylvania that has a 90-day warranty on it's heart surgeries.
It's that last one that got me sucked into the Business section in the first place. It's kind of disconcerting to realize that there is actually financial disincentive for doctors to cure patients built into our health care system. Seriously, if a doctor screws up and you need a bunch of follow up care they make more money than if you're cured. Now, I don't imagine that doctors are out there plotting to screw up procedures just enough to require follow up treatment but not enough to kill people, but the fact is the experiment at this hospital in PA is decreasing the amount of complications.
Doctors, for the most part, work for clinics or hospitals that have policies dictating standards of care. What this hospital has done is have all it's cardiologists get together and develop a 40 point standard of pre-op cardiac care and put in place a policy that says if any one of the 40 points is skipped the surgery gets cancelled. That seems really simple, but this hospital has taken it one step further, they're saying they're so sure this 40 point standard of care will decrease complications that they're putting a 90-day warranty on surgeries. It's a revolutionary concept in health care. Standardization isn't new and it is widely recognised to reduce complications (and to ultimately save money in addition to saving lives), but offering a warranty is something previously confined to the makers of cars, and appliances, and electronics. It's kind of an exciting innovation in health care.
If you want to read more about it, check out this article in today's NY Times.
And today, the Business section was fascinating. Sony is hemorrhaging money, Amazon.com is going to start selling digital music (unprotected digital music), and there's a hospital in Pennsylvania that has a 90-day warranty on it's heart surgeries.
It's that last one that got me sucked into the Business section in the first place. It's kind of disconcerting to realize that there is actually financial disincentive for doctors to cure patients built into our health care system. Seriously, if a doctor screws up and you need a bunch of follow up care they make more money than if you're cured. Now, I don't imagine that doctors are out there plotting to screw up procedures just enough to require follow up treatment but not enough to kill people, but the fact is the experiment at this hospital in PA is decreasing the amount of complications.
Doctors, for the most part, work for clinics or hospitals that have policies dictating standards of care. What this hospital has done is have all it's cardiologists get together and develop a 40 point standard of pre-op cardiac care and put in place a policy that says if any one of the 40 points is skipped the surgery gets cancelled. That seems really simple, but this hospital has taken it one step further, they're saying they're so sure this 40 point standard of care will decrease complications that they're putting a 90-day warranty on surgeries. It's a revolutionary concept in health care. Standardization isn't new and it is widely recognised to reduce complications (and to ultimately save money in addition to saving lives), but offering a warranty is something previously confined to the makers of cars, and appliances, and electronics. It's kind of an exciting innovation in health care.
If you want to read more about it, check out this article in today's NY Times.
posted by Beth at
2:19 PM
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