Thomson-Reuters: Ways to Reduce HC Costs

Here is yet another report on how to reduce health care expenditures in the United States. In the study (http://factsforhealthcare.com/) Thomson Reuters says that $3.6 trillion could be saved over the next 10 years by doing the following:

Encouraging everyone to manage their own health through personal behavior to prevent diseases, early detection and appropriate care for chronic diseases.

Using a simple checklist approach to prevent medical errors, which cost $50 billion to $100 billion a year. For instance, Dr. Peter Provonost at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore estimates his checklist he uses when inserting a catheter to deliver medication, called a central line, reduced infection rates from 11% to zero. This prevented 43 infections and eight deaths and saved the hospital $2 million.

Reducing opportunities for fraud. A George Washington University report estimated that in 2007, fraud accounted for 5% to 10% of the $2.3 trillion in health care spending.

"The goal is to change the culture of fraud," the report reads, adding that while most providers submit legitimate bills, "the public and the provider community need to be better educated about how fraudulent payments directly reduce resources available to patients for legitimate and necessary health care services."

Reduce fragmentation in the delivery of care, better coordinating care among specialists and cutting administrative costs.

Create a "culture of performance improvement" that promotes the quick dissemination and adoption of best practices.

The no-brainer one of these suggestions and the easiest one to implement would be the check-list. It is mind-boggling to me that check lists are not a standard practice at every hospital in the country. Boeing started to required pilots to use one starting in the 1930s. Here we are over 70 years later and check lists are still not a common practice in hospitals.