Comments on: Should medicine be efficient in the business sense?

By: R

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:41:22 +0000

IN THE WRONG ‘THINKING LANE’

Efficiency is not the word. “Outcomes” is more relevant.

That is: is your patient-group being treated with maximal quality, professionalism — and efficiency.

Few mistakes? Well-read on professional journals? Treating patients at a safe, brisk pace? No excessive charges?

By: Angelo Falcone

Angelo Falcone — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:19:49 +0000

Before we worry about the dangers of adopting business efficiencies in medicine we should at least get to the point where we are able to say we have rung out all the inefficiencies. We are leaps and bounds from that point.

I am part of a leadership team that involves caring for 300K patients per year in emergency departments in the DC metro area. I work clinically for 40-50% of my time per month in addition to my leadership responsibilities. In medicine it is rare that clinicians get individual feedback on performance including quality of care and efficiency of practice, even in larger groups. This is witnessed by the many good people who join our organization and have never had ANY type of feedback after residency. While there is much that is cognitive about medicine there is also much of it that is routine especially in the area of managing chronic disease and routine ED care.

I believe we have much to learn from business and the efficiencies it has developed over time. How to do that and maintain our compassion for individual patients will always be a challenge. In the end we must find that balance for the benefit of our patients and ourselves as the current system can not support the overall escalation in costs in perpetuity.

By: kidney function

kidney function — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:24:41 +0000

While I agree with your thoughts for the most part, I still think that efficiency, or at least the act of optimization, creates competition and therefore can potentially create a better health care environment…although that is of course not always the case.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:16:31 +0000

To allow inefficiencies to continue is to allow yourself to go out of business. This will be a growing trend in medicine. Indeed, it is already happening with the increasing presence of EHR. If it matters, it’s measured, and believe me, with EHR it is measured. The first step in cost-cutting, with many more to follow.

By: Medical Spa MD

Medical Spa MD — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0000

In my experience the physicians and medical practices most focused on increasing efficiencies are those with business owners, even if those include physicians. Cosmetic medical practices are a examples. Since there’s no third party payers or ‘code games’, inefficiencies bubble immediately to the surface since the practices are small and dollars are felt immediately.

By: Doc99

Doc99 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:19:39 +0000

Outsourcing is alive and well in medicine. Radiology reports for hospitals in the US are read in Australia and India. Medical tourism to Latin America, Thailand, South Africa, etc is on the rise. The so-called “Healthcare Reform” currently being debated in DC may cause many American physicians to outsource themselves.