Last week Alegent Health hosted a forum for hospital leaders called "Power to the Patient." At the event, Alegent CEO Wayne Sensor spoke about the storm clouds on the healthcare horizon, encouraging leaders to embrace the one bright spot that can change the course of the industry: consumer empowerment.
Sensor's message is nothing new to most of us. For two years now, Alegent has been a leader in providing cost, quality, and patient satisfaction data to consumers and received a lot of attention for doing so. In those two years, Sensor says he's heard just about every argument for why the organization shouldn't post its information online: Doctors worry about how quality scores will make them look. Administrators with high scores fear what will happen if their organizations can't maintain high marks. And, perhaps the biggest argument: Do consumers really care?
Until now, all indicators showed that the answer to that question was "no." But earlier this month, The Regence Group, a Portland, OR-based insurance consortium, released a survey that says if given the information they need, patients will shop like consumers for healthcare services, considering the cost and quality of their intended purchase.
The survey was answered online by 2,000 people in four states and is the first to convincingly show consumer interest in price and quality data. Participants were asked to select one of 25 healthcare services that they could potentially need within five years. They were asked questions that surveyed how and if they would find information about the selected procedures. Seven out of 10 respondents reported they would look for information about prices and quality for non-emergency procedures, such as childbirth and diagnostic testing, The Regence Group said in a press release.
Of those who said they would do research to find out more about their particular procedure, 78 percent said they would seek information about quality, while 74 percent said they were more interested in cost information.
So what do the results of this survey mean for hospitals? It means that consumers are paying attention to the quality of the healthcare provided at your facility. They're pulling up your Web site and looking at the survival rate for cardiac surgery patients and stroke victims. They want to know how many patients contracted MRSA and other hospital acquired infections at your facility last year. They're serious about their health and want to know more about what your hospital can do to help them lead better lives. But is your hospital helping them in this quest for information?
I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for information, a list of numbers on a Web site doesn't encourage me to keep reading. In fact, the pages and pages of numbers that most hospitals put up do nothing but make my head spin. Consumers like me want Web sites and publications that are easy to understand--that not only give quick answers to their questions, but tell them why the facts and figures presented there are important and relevant to their healthcare.
The Regent Group's study is proof that healthcare has changed, and it's time for hospitals to not only provide care, but engage consumers in the healthcare experience. It used to be that a patient would take the advice of his or her doctor and see a specialist or have an MRI no questions asked. But that is no longer the case. Patients are going to do their own research. They're going to look online. They're going to talk to friends and family. They're going to go on your hospital's Web site and see what information you're offering. If they don't find what they're looking for, they'll head somewhere else.
Remember when I said a couple of weeks ago that quality was the most talked about subject in healthcare? I didn't mean just among doctors and administrators. Consumers hear about MRSA and medication errors and immediately wonder about the quality of care they or their loved ones will receive at their next visit. More and more hospitals post their quality stories online every day. Why should yours be left out?
U.S. researchers are designing software that will allow doctors to carry out simulated surgery using the Nintendo Wii console's novel control system. The motion sensors in the wireless "Wiimote" allow game players to direct on-screen action by waving it about and pointing it at the screen. Some experts believe the software could help surgeons improve their skills by practicing at home, and play an important role in the medical education in the developing world where there is less access to expensive virtual training tools.
When the conversation shifts to who's got the better health system, the United States or Canada, consider this: The quality of hospital care appears to be the same on both sides of the border. The statement is significant given the dramatic differences in how much each country spends on healthcare, according to one of the authors of a study by the Niagara Health Quality Coalition and the University of Toronto.
All 20 anesthesiologists who work at Northwest Hospital & Medical Center in Seattle said they were simply looking for fairness when they went to management and asked for more than $2 million. Instead, the hospital responded by canceling their contract--essentially firing them all. If negotiations do not work, the breakup could mean the hospital would have to scramble to find enough specialists, possibly meaning delays in surgeries.
The time elapsed since a primary care physician's last board certification correlates with a decline in the quality of care provided to patients, according to a study published by researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. The study included 8,127 hypertensive patients with diabetes who had a high blood pressure reading documented in their records at least once between 2000 and 2005. The team analyzed the temporal relationship between board certification and treatment intensification, defined as an increase in dose, a change from one drug to another or the addition of a new drug.
These days, to spend time in the hospital is to be at risk of contracting a hospital-acquired infection. Some of these infections can be life-threatening. But there is a simple way to make that hospital stay safer, devised by Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, a physician-researcher at Johns Hopkins. The method--a five-item checklist to assure that proper precautions are taken to prevent infection--has been thoroughly tested, first at Johns Hopkins and later in 108 intensive-care units in Michigan, saving lives and reducing costs for patients who received the major fluid tube called a central venous catheter.
California Medical Center have backed off plans to reduce San Francisco's St. Luke's Hospital to an outpatient hub, and instead have formed a panel charged with investigating ways to retain the facility's health services. Cal Pacific has faced intense criticism since publicizing plans in October to downgrade St. Luke's to an ambulatory center with a free-standing emergency room.
A California Senate committee has postponed a key vote on the $14 billion overhaul of the state's healthcare system. The decision to delay a vote until came in the wake of a critical report on the plan's potential impact that found the measure could cost the state $1.5 billion a year by 2015.
As health insurance costs continue to rise, some employers are adopting a controversial new approach that ends group coverage and gives employees $50 to $200 or so a month to help them buy their own. The shift is touted as a lower-cost way for employers to offer workers health coverage, while making smaller and more predictable financial contributions toward that coverage. If broadly adopted, the new model would represent a fundamental shift in health coverage.
The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners and Senate President Richard J. Codey are working to extricate the state's outpatient surgical centers from a difficult legal position. A judge ruled last year that doctors who owned a center in North Jersey were violating a heretofore unenforced state law prohibiting self-referral. The board, which regulates the centers, is now proposing an emergency amendment to its regulations that would sidestep the issue of self-referral by broadening the definition of a doctor's medical office.
