Wall Street Journal

There seems to be a new story or two, or ten, everyday in the Wall Street Journal regarding the healthcare industry. Currently comprising 16% of the US GDP, you would expect an intense focus by the premier buisiness daily on this growing and changing field. Today is no exception.

We receive a “free” subscription with our +$30K tuition (kinda like getting a lunch cooler for buying a car, isn’t it?), and are required to read it for our HC Landscape course. Often this daily assignment slips through my to-do list, but today I was able to read through it over dinner.

There was a great article titled “Health-Care Industry Agrees on Set of Rules For Patient Safety.” It gives an overarching view of the problems, and solutions, we discuss nearly everyday in class. Today’s HC industry is marred by inconsistent, vague, and often contradictory, quality regulations. According to the article, 100,000 patients die from avoidable medical mistakes each year. These mistakes can be avoided with consistent safe practices guidelines and adherence to evidence-based medicine (“the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients”) . This panel, evidently representing the vast “industry”, has finally agreed on a definitive set of rules to address the former. Hopefully, this will lead to a “pay for performance” system, where doctors and hospitals are accountable for their treatment of patients (if they do not adhere to these guidelines or the current best evidence medicine, they get paid less). Though this proposed system does have its problems (how would doctors who receive the most critical patients – cardiology at Vandy for example – be compensated when a larger portion of their patients die?). Currently, hospitals are paid no matter the outcome of the services. If these guidelines are truly adopted, and rigorously regulated/monitored, they might significantly alter the quality and safety of today’s hospitals. Only time will tell…