Tag: overutilization

More Medicine, Less Art – Reducing Variation in Healthcare Costs

August 13th, 2013
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After eating at my favorite restaurant last week, I started to think why I enjoyed it so much. I have been eating at the same place regularly for years, but never stopped to think about what makes it special. After thinking about it for a bit, I came up with one word: consistency. I know […]

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Posted in Quality Efficiency Utilization

Hospital Capacity Management: Handling Complex Care Patients

July 31st, 2013
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Among the range of groups whose care sucks up a disproportionate amount of healthcare resources, “Complex Care Patients” present a special challenge for hospital leaders seeking to improve their hospital’s capacity management. These patients require special processes and a deliberate strategy to ensure that their hospital stay isn’t prolonged further than necessary. Failure to address […]

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Posted in Quality Efficiency Utilization

Can More Care Actually Result in Lower Costs for All?

January 31st, 2011
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I read an article recently by Dr. Atul Gawande in the New Yorker that comes as close to anything regarding making an argument that more care to the right subset of patients (Hot Spotters) may actually result in overall lower system costs.  There are some mind-boggling statistics in the article including the highest 1% of patients […]

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Posted in Future of Healthcare

Do the Right Thing – Hold the Inappropriate Antibiotics

January 26th, 2011
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Recently I saw an 18 month old girl on her second course of antibiotics for an “infection”, according to the mother. The child initially had symptoms of fever associated with nasal congestion and cough and sore throat. How she or the treating physician determined she had a sore throat will always be an enigma for […]

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Posted in Quality Efficiency Utilization