I think that designing care for medical conditions rather than for procedures makes sense. Many medical conditions have a unique set of presentations and complications which are well documented and developing procedures that are based on typical presentations would make the best use of the healthcare resources and provide the best care to the patient.
I am currently in medical school so I do not know the feasibility of basing care plans on the "cycle of care". I would be interested in the feedback of some practicing physicians on the practicality of using this methodology.
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Re:A new focus for health care reform: realigning competition around patient value
Date: 2007/03/16 03:25
By: Naoum
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the authors note that physicians are beginning to organize care around medical conditions and are forming institutes, centers, and other types of integrated structures that bring needed specialties and expertise together and encompass the care cycle.
This sounds obvious once written, but it certainly not the approach we saw during training.
In terms of changing reimbursement structures to reward value, it seems that has to start from a realization of payers. Particular big payers like Medicare and BCBS who see long term trends among physicians (see physician profiling).
It's almost impossible for individual physicians to prove to patients they provide more value than any other care giver - anyone ever trust a hospital commercial? Hospital Ratings Medical Resource Group, LLC
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Re:A new focus for health care reform: realigning competition around patient value
Date: 2007/03/16 16:55
By: utcom
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“Designing risk-adjusted outcomes measures is not easy, but their practicality has been convincingly demonstrated. In some very complex areas of care, such as intensive care, transplant surgery, cardiac surgery, and long-term care for cystic fibrosis, validated measures have been available for many years"
Does anyone know the impact of having validated measures in the above mentioned medical conditions. In other words, have patient outcomes improved and costs of care decreased?
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