"Where do all the dollars go?" asks the Economist on page 53 of its January 12th edition. "America lags behind its peers in preventing avoidable deaths" is the sub-headline, and the short article goes on to note that "despite being the top spender per head on health, the US lags painfully, and increasingly, behind other wealthy countries in the overall performance of its medial system." This is based on a study of preventable deaths in the population in 19 propserous nations, in which the US came last, and in which the US is falling even further behind.
This damning indictment is shameful, and shows how far the US healthcare system has to go. While we worry about Healthcare 2.0 (a la Web 2.0), what we should really be concerned about is the fact that our system looks like a version 0.2.
In contrast, you know I am a fan of Paul Levy and his blog. Paul is CEO of a partnership of two hospitals, BIDMC (large, Harvard-affiliated academic medical center) and BID Needham (community hospital in the Boston suburbs). Paul's recent posting on the big goals they have set for themselves continues the tradition of leadership that he and the hospitals have been taking on things that matter, and on transparency of efforts and outcomes. This is the real Healthcare 2.0, despite my infatuation with PHRs and the like. May the the BID Hospitals reach their goals speedily, and congratulations to their entire team.
1 comment:
Thanks very much!
Post a Comment