The work of being a doctor is among one of the most challenging an individual can undertake. But if the American health care system is going to enhance, Peter Orszag opines in a recent New York Times piece that medical professionals must do more. Health professionals operating Saturdays and Sundays and hospitals that keep up with modern times by instituting health information technologies .
Healthcare reform needs different bank hours
Health care reform and quality patient care can’t go together with the way the system is now. That is what Orszag explains here: What would happen if a hospital didn’t have to have uniform care evaluation or if a drugstore closed on weekends? Both examples apply to the United States healthcare system.
Health professionals should be operating on weekend, based on numerous studies. The New England Journal of Medicine found in 2007 that for each 1,000 heart attack patients admitted to a hospital on a weekend, there were as much as 10 additional deaths when compared with weekday admissions. Lots of time was lost because those admitted on a weekend had to wait longer for approval for invasive procedures. Even for less threatening issues, weekend service from one’s primary caregiver would be convenient and ease strain during the week. Orszag has the opinion that hospital resources should be used to full capacity. Within the end it should save some cash, he explained.
Make the modifications to make it work better
Establishing clear, uniform metrics for care statistics would go a long way toward improving patient care, as all hospitals in the United States would know precisely how they would be evaluated and could focus their energies into those key areas. There must be more that can be done than just giving cash advances from the government. Also, we could be more efficient if all medical records and procedures went into accessible health information technology for the 21st century. This causes things to happen like people not getting their routine procedures done until later in the day. This consists of things like having a catheter. Numerous individuals are kept within the hospital longer when they are ready to leave. The hospital ends up spending more money as the beds are being used longer than necessary. And the potential new patient who needs that bed is made to wait.
Articles cited
New England Journal of Medicine
nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa063355#t=articleTop
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/04/opinion/04orszag.html?_r=1 and ref=opinion
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