May 14th, 2012
Podcast 155: What’s wrong with U.S. healthcare and what will save it?
Dr. Arnold Relman, longtime observer of the U.S. healthcare system and editor emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine, proposes two major reforms: First, private insurance companies should leave the healthcare field, and second, physicians should organize into multispecialty practices. His proposals, just published in BMJ, grow out of his alarmed observation — some 30 […]
January 20th, 2012
Podcast 142: Really, why are you ordering that test?
The American College of Physicians wants to encourage high-value, cost-conscious care. And so they convened a consensus panel of physicians to list tests that they considered overused or inappropriately used in certain circumstances. One example would be the use of MRI for breast screening in normal-risk patients; another is the use of imaging studies in […]
September 16th, 2011
Podcast 130: If you’re a clinician concerned about health costs, wash your hands — don’t just wring them
Health Affairs has a study in which a few simple, but rigorously followed patient-care procedures in a pediatric ICU dropped infection rates, mortality, lengths of hospital stay, and total costs. Sound too good to be true? Well, it wasn’t exactly easy, but the results were real and measurable. Listen in and see whether this could […]
May 7th, 2010
Podcast 86: Prompt follow-up after discharge for heart failure reduces early-readmission rates.
Why wouldn’t you want your hospital to lower its rate of early readmissions for heart failure by 15%? We talk with Dr. Adrian Hernandez about his examination of Medicare data from over 200 hospitals, how the hospitals vary widely in the rates at which their patients are followed up within a week of discharge for […]
February 27th, 2010
Podcast 76: On saying “No” to patients’ requests.
A conversation with the authors of an Archives of Internal Medicine study that examines the best tactics for saying “No” to inappropriate requests. Contact me at 1-617-440-4374 or at jelia@jwatch.org. Interview-related links: Archives of Internal Medicine abstract Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article News-related links: The rosiglitazone (Avandia) controversy Advisory on thiazolidinediones Physicians’ work hours 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine Influenza-vaccination expansion […]
February 8th, 2009
Podcast 29: Dr. Brian Jack of Boston University sees RED (Re-Engineered Discharge) as a way to lower hospital readmissions.
Millions of people are discharged each year from U.S. hospitals. How many find themselves on the street with no clear idea of what they’ve been treated for, what drugs they should take and when, and how to get in touch with a clinician if something goes wrong? No surprise, many are readmitted — either directly […]
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