Considering how much we already pay for health care, you have to wonder why doctors, hospitals and insurance providers so often fail to coordinate their patients’ care.
mua khung nan cot song dien chan tu tri thoat vi dia dem tai phat o dau
Your primary care doctor, the hospital you visit and the various specialists you are sent to are typically part of different organizations that do not communicate effectively with one another. Balls get dropped and care suffers. In part, it’s a consequence of siloed medical practice.
That’s why the standard advice for patients who are hospitalized or have complex medical conditions is to monitor their own care. This means tracking what each specialist advises and prescribes, ensuring it gets done and informing other doctors about it. Failure to monitor, communicate and coordinate care increases the chance of errors and omissions that can harm health.
This is hard to get right, even for health care experts, including my Upshot colleague, Dr. Aaron Carroll.
Complicating matters, you may have to coordinate your own care while you are sick, unless you have help from a loved one. Another alternative is a professional patient advocate, who may charge $100 or more an hour to coordinate care. Some employers may pay for the service, but neither Medicare nor most health insurance plans do.
Increasingly, however, health care organizations are trying to solve this problem another way. One approach — though there are others — is to consolidate more of the health care you need in one organization called an integrated delivery system. An I.D.S. owns one or several hospitals and also employs physicians across multiple specialties. It may also provide nursing home and rehabilitation care. In some cases, an integrated delivery system may offer its own health insurance plans.
dia chi ban khung nan cot song dien chan tu tri thoat vi dia dem tai phat
Advocates of this approach claim that the coordinated care an I.D.S. offers is not only better for patients but also reduces duplication and avoids unnecessary services, thus lowering costs. Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic and Geisinger Health System are some of the integrated delivery systems with reputations for high quality and low costs.
However, the evidence suggests that an I.D.S. doesn’t always improve patient care and keep costs down.
Some studies have found an I.D.S. is more likely to use evidence-based care or is better able to manage care. But other studies offer more mixed conclusions. A study published in Health Services Research found that after Minneapolis-St. Paul area hospitals acquired physician practices, there were small improvements in cancer screening and emergency room use. But it also found more unnecessary hospitalizations.
khung nan thoat vi
Other research that examined 15 nationally prominent integrated delivery systems found no meaningful differences in the quality of care provided by their flagship hospitals, compared with their main competitors. And it turned out that the I.D.S. hospitals were more costly.
mua khung nan cot song dien chan tu tri thoat vi dia dem tai phat o dau
Your primary care doctor, the hospital you visit and the various specialists you are sent to are typically part of different organizations that do not communicate effectively with one another. Balls get dropped and care suffers. In part, it’s a consequence of siloed medical practice.
That’s why the standard advice for patients who are hospitalized or have complex medical conditions is to monitor their own care. This means tracking what each specialist advises and prescribes, ensuring it gets done and informing other doctors about it. Failure to monitor, communicate and coordinate care increases the chance of errors and omissions that can harm health.
This is hard to get right, even for health care experts, including my Upshot colleague, Dr. Aaron Carroll.
Complicating matters, you may have to coordinate your own care while you are sick, unless you have help from a loved one. Another alternative is a professional patient advocate, who may charge $100 or more an hour to coordinate care. Some employers may pay for the service, but neither Medicare nor most health insurance plans do.
Increasingly, however, health care organizations are trying to solve this problem another way. One approach — though there are others — is to consolidate more of the health care you need in one organization called an integrated delivery system. An I.D.S. owns one or several hospitals and also employs physicians across multiple specialties. It may also provide nursing home and rehabilitation care. In some cases, an integrated delivery system may offer its own health insurance plans.
dia chi ban khung nan cot song dien chan tu tri thoat vi dia dem tai phat
Advocates of this approach claim that the coordinated care an I.D.S. offers is not only better for patients but also reduces duplication and avoids unnecessary services, thus lowering costs. Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic and Geisinger Health System are some of the integrated delivery systems with reputations for high quality and low costs.
However, the evidence suggests that an I.D.S. doesn’t always improve patient care and keep costs down.
Some studies have found an I.D.S. is more likely to use evidence-based care or is better able to manage care. But other studies offer more mixed conclusions. A study published in Health Services Research found that after Minneapolis-St. Paul area hospitals acquired physician practices, there were small improvements in cancer screening and emergency room use. But it also found more unnecessary hospitalizations.
khung nan thoat vi
Other research that examined 15 nationally prominent integrated delivery systems found no meaningful differences in the quality of care provided by their flagship hospitals, compared with their main competitors. And it turned out that the I.D.S. hospitals were more costly.