Pressing for better quality across healthcare

Los Angeles Times

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Dear Editor,

Recently, you reported on Donald Berwick’s contributions and hope in cutting errors in the healthcare setting and increasing efficiency in an effort to improve the quality of healthcare as well as driving down its cost. These errors committed in a hospital are dangerous and can lead to death. As a student in Public Health, I believe implementing quality control policies such as ones as simple as “MedZones” would cut costs of healthcare, and less errors being committed may lessen the need for more treatment, which will also cut costs. With the US government focused on cutting federal spending, what some people don’t realize is that cutting healthcare costs right now may drastically decrease quality of care. Instead, we should be focusing on improving quality of care, which may lead to a more efficient way of delivering healthcare, driving costs down on its own. I believe it’s also important to first address the issues driving up healthcare costs, other than errors in the hospital, such as overtreating, before you cut costs because solving those issues may also lead to lower costs in healthcare.

Kathleen Ma

kma0130@gmail.com

2533 Durant Ave. Apt 35

Berkeley, CA 94704

510-565-2728

In Response to:

Pressing for better quality across healthcare

By Noam N. Levey

Published October 4, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-health-innovation-20111005,0,7115859.story?page=1