Letter to the Editor
National Public Radio
www.npr.org
10/06/11
Dear Editor,
Yesterday, there was a fascinating article discussing recent rankings of hospitals and its effects on minority communities in the United States. The article noted that the “worst” hospitals more often treated various minority groups than did the “best” hospitals. Effectively, the “best” hospitals would be rewarded most financially, leaving “worse” hospitals with fewer resources to improve. With so much attention on the “Obamacare” policy, this article is timely in revealing potential flaws and concerns to the health services system.
As a student, this case of “worst” and “best” hospitals is reminiscent of our current funding method for the education system in which schools with higher standardized test scores benefit by receiving more funding than schools who score lower but face a higher need for resources to improve.
What people do not realize (as noted by the comments in the article) is that this potential problem is not solely a cause of the new “Obamacare”, but rather is a continuous flaw of the health services system in America, where high costs for procedures and lack of insurance push away minorities from care on a daily basis. This article strengthens the need for a reevaluation of the US health services system.
Sincerely,
J.P. Shami
jshami24@gmail.com
After reading this article, I agree with your statement. It is very well true that we are repeating the poverty cycle by treating minorities and the poor with "bad" hospitals. Yet again, I don't know how they would address this issue without turning into a socialist country. Maybe not that extreme, but you're right, it sounds like our educational system. This is just another pathway from a social determinant to poorer health effects.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your sentiment. There are many reasons why there are "bad" hospitals, location/neighboring communities, land use, and access to capital being key reasons. Distinguishing the good and the bad through the ranking system is unproductive and doesn't address the issue of why they exist. Rather than create a ranking system which demonizes the least funded hospitals, there should be more efforts to conceptualize ways to address how to increase their access to more capital and resources so that the poorly funded hospitals deliver better care to their communities.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. I think that this is a perfect example of how the American Healthcare System needs restructuring. Ranking hospitals does not help; it obstruct hospitals from getting urgently needed help. What politicians and people need to concentrate on is on the need fix the root of the problem, obstructing access to basic primary access.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your response to the article that allocating funds based on rankings just continues to render this country's healthcare system ineffective. It's bothersome when decision-makers only care to address the symptoms--low-ranked hospitals--and fail to directly address the problem. This trend of failing to actually confront issues at hand is costly, timely, and inefficient. I find that this ranking system is only going to perpetuate the problem of unequal access to healthcare, as seen with minorities. Where is the value in providing financial support to a hospital that is ranked high? As you mentioned, this is just another cry for the reevaluation of this country's undeniably inadequate healthcare system that will unfortunately be ignored or improperly addressed.
ReplyDelete-Jason Tran