Efficiency Measurement compares the quantity of care process outputs to the resources required as inputs to the process. Sometimes “efficiency” is used as a synonym for “cost”, without regard to the quantity of outputs.
In a recent post to the Health Affairs Blog, Charles Roehrig, an economist who serves as VP and director of Altarum’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending, presented some very interesting graphics of long term health care cost growth in the U.S. He shows the often-presented statistic of health care cost as a percent of Gross
Telling a 46 year health care cost growth story in one graph Read More »
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine compared the economic outcomes of hospital episodes managed by hospitalists to those managed by the patients’ primary care physicians in a Medicare population. Previous studies focused only on the cost of the hospital stay itself, and showed that hospitalists were able to reduce length of stay
This morning, I read a set of slides published by the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Health Research and Education Trust (HRET) called “Striving for Top Box: Hospitals Increasing Quality and Efficiency.” The report showcased the clinical integration and performance improvement efforts of three hospital-based health systems: Novant (North Carolina), Piedmont (Georgia) and Banner (Arizona).
Background Joint replacement is a costly and frequently performed inpatient procedure. In 1995, Henry Ford Hospital carried out 280 total hip replacements and 225 total knee replacements. To decrease unnecessary inpatient utilization and enhance functional outcomes of joint replacement surgery, Henry Ford Hospital established a multi-disciplinary improvement team, including representatives from Orthopedic Surgery, Physical Therapy,
Improving Total Hip Replacement Surgery Read More »
