Medical information technologies can increase quality and reduce costs

Medical information technologies can increase quality and reduce costs

Patients and healthcare providers are continually exposed to a healthcare system powered by medical information technologies. One of the first technologies showing promise is electronic health records (EHRs). Basic and advanced EHR systems facilitate access to essential clinical information, such as patient demographic characteristics, patient-physician encounters, laboratory and imaging result...

Increase Safety, Reduce Costs

Can disease management reduce health care costs by improving quality?

Disease management (DM) promises to achieve cost savings by improving the quality of care for chronic diseases. During the past decade the Permanente Medical Group in Northern California has implemented extensive DM programs. Examining quality indicators, utilization, and costs for 1996-2002 for adults with four conditions, we find evidence of substantial quality improvement but not cost saving...

Can the New Health Practitioners Reduce Medical Costs? Part 1. Physician Assistants and Emergency Medical Technicians

Many people regard their doctors with ambivalence, or sometimes even hostility. We often leave the doctor’s office dissatisfied and resentful. The pressure is apparent—there is never enough time to talk about our ailments. Obviously the doctor’s patient load is often too heavy. Furthermore, the situation is aggravated by the doctor’s inability to communicate concern for our problems. 1 Doctors ...

Can competition reduce quality?

We study the effect of competition on quality in markets such as health care, long-term care and education, when providers choose both prices and quality in a setting of spatial competition. We offer a novel mechanism whereby competition leads to lower quality. This mechanism relies on two key assumptions, namely that the providers are motivated and riskaverse. Our proposed mechanism can help e...