US hospital uses five months' worth of supplies in six days as shortages hit
independent.co.uk
independent.co.uk
Even 5-6x would be reasonable, if capacity is maxed. By then the hospital would be turning patients away I assume..
We need to fix it.
This is an older article[1] (2003), but I imagine the findings are only more relevant today. It compares the costs of the US healthcare system and Canada's, and there are huge discrepancies in price. Obviously the systems are very different, but I think we can trim the administration costs while keeping our privatized system.
I'm not an expert, nor have I done a ton of research, but it seems that making costs transparent (and having instance pay advertised costs) would go a long way to cutting costs. Care providers do a lot of work to deal with insurance, so if we move that to insurance companies, they'll find ways to reduce their own costs and we can eliminate a lot of redundant jobs. Medical care providers should focus on medical care, insurance should focus on financial care, and individuals should shop for the best deal. Ideally, I only interact with my insurance when I need it, much like auto and home insurance. I don't tell my auto insurance every time I change the oil, so why do I do the same for health insurance and checkups?
As someone who vaguely works in healthcare, I have asked for journals that compare information systems management for public healthcare systems of different countries with different approaches and measuring outcomes. Contractors and US agency employees alike in my limited experience cannot point me to any, and this is the domain I am interested in. I am sure it will count in this crisis and countless others.
Do such periodicals exist? Anyone know?
When people say US or country X has a sucky healthcare system even computer scientists don't seem to care for scientific measurement of policy and supporting IT systems to do that a high level (ie US Medicare and Medicaid, for a small example, don't run themselves).