Friday, September 07, 2012

America's Path to the Best Health Care at Lower Cost: IOM Report

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM) released a report yesterday (September 6, 2012) entitled "Best Care at Lower Cost : The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America."  The IOM's Committee on the Learning Health Care System in America was tasked with determining the key challenges to health care in the United States today.
"America's health care system has become far too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Pervasive inefficiencies, an inability to manage a rapidly deepening clinical knowledge base, and a reward system poorly focused on key patient needs, all hinder improvements in the safety and quality of care and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. Achieving higher quality care at lower cost will require fundamental commitments to the incentives, culture, and leadership that foster continuous "learning”, as the lessons from research and each care experience are systematically captured, assessed, and translated into reliable care."
In brief this report identifies three major imperatives for change:
  • the rising complexity of modern health care
  • unsustainable cost increases
  • outcomes below the system’s potential
Read the brief or full report free online at the IOM website.
 
 

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Defining Roles: Future Directions for Physicians and Nurses

The New York Times weighs in on the recent Institute of Medicine's landmark report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” [ Doctor and Patient: Nurses’ Role in the Future of Health Care, Pauline Chen, M.D., November 18, 2010. Click title for NYT article.]
"In all the discussions about adjusting the number of medical schools and training slots, rearranging physician payment schedules and reorganizing practice models, one group of providers has been conspicuously missing. The nurses."
"The expert panel is scheduled to convene again at the end of this month, this time to discuss implementing their recommendations. They will have their work cut out for them. Critics like the American Medical Association ...warns that “with a shortage of both nurses and physicians, increasing the responsibility of nurses is not the answer to the physician shortage.” "
The Times article notes...
“When the ship seems to be going down, you’ve got to get all hands on deck.”

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