Here’s a look at the need for health systems to include physicians in cost-containment efforts.
Part of the challenge is clearing up the confusion about cost and “value”.
Becker’s Hospital Review writes: “Hospital leaders who have been given the seemingly impossible task of improving quality with fewer resources must bring physicians into the loop, said Neel Shah, M.D., an OB/GYN and founder and executive director of CostsOfCare.org, which curates and disseminates knowledge from patients and frontline clinicians to help health systems deliver better care at lower cost….’
“The way physicians are taught teaches us to be terrible stewards of resources,” Dr. Shah told Becker’s.
Strata Decision Technology CEO Dan Michelson referenced to Becker’s a Health Affairs report showing that physicians control 80 percent of U.S. healthcare spending but, as only one in five can correctly estimate the cost of common orthopedic devices.
Becker’s said:”The study shows that systems can achieve savings when physicians are included in the cost conversation, as 80 percent of physicians said cost was a key criterion in the selection of a medical device.”
“Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Health System, a long-time partner of Strata’s, has seen its cost-containment efforts succeed by including physicians in the conversation.”
“After implementing an EMR and establishing a common definition of quality, Yale-New Haven implemented Strata’s solution systemwide. The academic health system now uses quality value indicators (QVIs™) to understand differences in cost based on negative quality outcomes. Through the use of QVIs and by including physicians in the cost conversation, Yale-New Haven has reduced spending by about $150 million, while improving the delivery of care.”
To read the Becker’s article, please hit this link.
