Dear Editor,
On October 4th, Noam Levey reported that Dr. Donald Berwick has been working to improve the efficiency of health systems, which is greatly needed in the this era of rising healthcare costs.
Healthcare costs have grown dramatically since the 1980s are projected to keep growing until 2020. Factors contributing to this growth include: an aging population contributing to a higher burden of disease, and technological improvements needing investments.
Hospitals should be run like businesses to maximize efficiency. Business do it to maximize profits but because payment schemes in healthcare are so complicated, it is difficult for hospitals to find incentives to increase efficiency and cut errors. The state governments should incentivize streamlining hospital procedures so hospitals make that investment to increase their efficiency. Streamlining hospital procedures is the cheapest method to decrease costs on a micro-level through decreasing administrative costs, errors and defensive medicine spending.
Sincerely,
Charisma Hooda
Written in response to http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-health-innovation-20111005,0,4951023,full.story
I feel like this article really sums up all the trends we have been learning in class about where our healthcare system is going in terms of population aging and the consequent implications. It is also true that our healthcare system is more market justice than social justice and thus strives for profit seeking nature than efficiency and equity. The suggestion for streamlining hospital procedures is definitely a feasible plan to undertake because it is less overhauling and hence more realistic to implement.
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