As the U.S. seeks to drive down medical spending, one goal is to eliminate tests and treatments that are ineffective while encouraging price competition among things that work. Passing the buck on to the consumer isn't enough; on The Pump Handle, Liz Borkowski reports that giving patients an incentive to save money on health care causes them to see the doctor less, not "shop smarter." Meanwhile, Orac provides an update on "Choosing Wisely," a program meant to weed out useless procedures by appealing to the prudence of medical specialists instead of patients. In the three years that it has been in effect, the initiative has had little measurable impact. As Orac writes, "As much as physicians want to do the right thing for their patients, changing behavior in large numbers of people is among the most difficult human endeavors of all."
Healthcare Habits Die Hard
[Editor's Note: Today we pay tribute to the dual congruencies of American cinema and psychiatric disorders. For those readers who don't recall the source of the patients' quotes, the answers are below the fold.]
Me: Hi, I'm Dr. Pal and I'll be taking care of you here in the hospital.
Patient: Where the hell is my real doctor?
Me: He's at the office seeing patients. He doesn't come to the hospital anymore.
Well, kinda sorta. I'm mentioned in a UPI article about rapid diagnosis of influenza and antibiotic use.
The New York Times writes an editorial about hospital rankings based on mortality of medicare patients from cardiac disease, and not surprisingly, m