It ’ s Happening; Unintended Consequences of “ Quality ”

Once again, I called it! Some of my previous takes on the fallacies of “Quality”: 9/24/09: The biggest mistake made by Medicare, private insurers, and other entities seeking to improve medical care by rewarding “quality” is mistaking it for “performance”. 2/18/13: The real reason doctors have begun “requiring” that patients undergo all manner of screening interventions is to enhance their compliance ratios. After all, the quickest way to get to 100% is to get rid of everyone who falls short. Now it’s moved to hospitals: Hospitals are throwing out organs and denying transplants to meet federal standards Yes, you read that right: Hospitals across the United States are throwing away less-than-perfect organs and denying the sickest people lifesaving transplants out of fear that poor surgical outcomes will result in a federal crackdown. As a result, thousands of patients are losing the chance at surgeries that could significantly prolong their lives, and the altruism of organ donation is being wasted. “It’s gut-wrenching and mind-boggling,” said Dr. Adel Bozorgzadeh, a transplant surgeon at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. Go ahead and read the whole thing. CMS’s latest push to revamp Medicare payment systems to reward “Quality”, a word never defined except in terms of dollars and cents, has an excellent chance of being the final straw that breaks the back of medical care in America. Un-***ing-believable!
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs