What the Health!

Part 2 – Healthcare cannot be High Performance without quality-based physician-patient matching

So how do we get to true quality transparency that takes into account access, equity, patient experience and patient safety? It’s Quadruple Aim - the hard way. It may not be in my lifetime when we will wrangle real quality data out of providers, but keep in mind that the audience for this data must understand risk adjustment, facility characteristics and the fact that medicine is messy by nature and bad things happen to the best doctors. Fortunately, CMS is penalizing hospitals for readmissions and you don’t see as many mishaps in the operating room after Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto became infused into common practice for surgery. But quality needs to be recognized as paramount when matching patients with physicians.

Part 1 – Employers are embracing High Performance Healthcare, but what is it?

In 2017, the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety published a paper attempting to define a High-Performance Healthcare System[1] by surveying published literature on the subject. They didn’t come up with a consistent definition, but reported that articles they reviewed cited these criteria: quality (93% of articles), cost (67%), access (35%), equity (26%), patient experience (21%) and patient safety (18%).

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It might be the year 2020, but when it comes to getting the right healthcare, gender equality hasn’t quite evolved yet. We haven’t been able to reduce the occurrence of healthcare errors, misdiagnoses and wasted spending either.

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Friends who know I work in the healthcare industry often reach out to me with stories about their medical misfortunes and sometimes ask for help. An otherwise healthy friend – Stephanie - recently relayed a story to me about intermittent numbness in her arm which got to the point where it started waking her up at night and turned into her self-navigating down a rabbit hole in healthcare.

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It’s 2019. Technology is everywhere. Information is everywhere. So, it should be really easy to find a doctor when you need one. Right? Nope. Unfortunately, many consumers of healthcare don’t even know what the “right” doctor looks like, even though they may think they do. This is not saying people aren’t intelligent. The reality is that navigating the healthcare system is like navigating a mine field whether you have a 6^th grade education or you’re a PhD.

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Let me get right to the point of this blog: Please get a primary care physician (PCP). I want you to have the best shot at your healthiest self and having a PCP quarterback your healthcare is a great way to do that.

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A Crisis in Healthcare Access

(Part 3 of a 3-part series)

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this post, I described a fundamental problem we have in accessing quality healthcare: finding the right doctor and its impact on the quadruple aim of our healthcare system.

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A Crisis in Healthcare Access

(Part 2 of a 3-part series)

In Part 1 of this post, I described a fundamental problem we have in accessing quality healthcare: finding the right doctor.

Why is this happening? Let’s start by defining the “right doctor”. The process of accessing healthcare, specifically, the right doctor for a specific condition, is in the stone ages. Physicians are grouped into broad specialties, but tend to have a fairly narrow sub-specialization or “sweet spot” where their experience, training and passion coincide – this is when the “right” doctor is treating a patient. 

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A Crisis in Healthcare Access

(Part 1 of a 3-part series)

Why are we in this mess?  What mess? 

I’m referring to the denial of the problem that US consumers face when trying to access healthcare. In case you haven’t been paying attention, we’ve been sweeping under the rug serious problems in our healthcare system. Access problems are pervasive and arguably more dangerous than in any other industry. Not only are consumers having trouble affording healthcare, physically getting to healthcare, knowing where to go for healthcare, but once they are in the system, they aren’t receiving the right care from the right provider.