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PLOS One

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Physicians’ attitudes on over-treatment

 

A survey published in PLOS ONE gives  physicians’ perspective on over-treatment.  Of the  2,327 respondents, nearly 85 percent cited fear of malpractice suits as a major cause of unnecessary care. They  cited  pressure from patients  59 percent of the time, and around 38 percent referenced issues regarding access to medical records.

Daniel Brotman, M.D., professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and one of the report’s authors, wrote: “Interestingly, but not surprisingly, physicians implicated their colleagues (more so than themselves) in providing wasteful care. This highlights the need to objectively measure and report wasteful practices on a provider or practice level.”

In the course of the survey, researchers also solicited potential solutions to the problem from physicians. The top three responses, as summarized by FierceHealthcare:

  • “Improve training for medical residents so that they monitor specific criteria related to the appropriateness of a given procedure, test or prescription.
  • “Continue to work to improve access to health records so that physicians have the information they need to make fully informed decisions about necessary tests and treatment.
  • “Improve guidelines for evidence-based care practices, so that doctors and patients can refer to a scientific basis for the best avenue of treatment for a given diagnosis.”

To read the survey article, please hit this link. To read the FierceHealthcare commentary on it, please hit this link.

 

 


The perils of picking the wrong hospital

roulette

The New York Times summarized the findings of an important and alarming new comprehensive study:

“Researchers have found that patients at the worst American hospitals were three times more likely to die and 13 times more likely to have medical complications than if they visited one of the best hospitals.”

The study,  in the academic journal PLOS One, shows “there is considerable variation in outcomes that really matter to patients, from hospital to hospital, as well as region to region,” Dr. Thomas H. Lee, M.D., a longtime healthcare executive not involved in the research, told The Times.

The Times reported that “The study’s authors looked at 22 million hospital admissions, including information from both the federal Medicare program and private insurance companies, and analyzed them using two dozen measures of medical outcomes. Adjusting the results for how sick the patients were and other factors, like age and income, the researchers discovered widespread differences among hospitals. Even a hospital that had excellent outcomes for heart care might have poor outcomes in treating diabetes.”

To read the study, please hit this link.

To read The New York Time’s article on it, please this link.


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