"there is no billing code for compassion,"
via runningahospital.blogspot.com
A short blog post from a hospital CEO recognizing the value of primary care.
I've worked with hospital systems struggling to keep up with emergency department demand. The process improvement teams analyze causes of the delay and explore interventions like speeding up the hospital discharge process to open beds more quickly so that ED admits get to the floor more quickly.
We read about cool new innovations like the 'hospital bed coordinator' and hospitals collaborate in learning how to 'increase bed turns' (like turning over a table in a restaurant - increases throughput & revenue).
These are all logical solutions and can indeed improve ED flow, but how about an analysis of the ED demand?
A major insurer on the East coast told me a couple of weeks ago that about 60% of ED visits for their members were totally unnecessary (could have been cared for in other ways).
The main problem was a lack of primary care access.
Hospitals rarely think about helping solve the primary care problem - I've even had a hospital CFO tell me to stop trying to fix primary care 'cause it would decrease the ED revenue engine.
It's nice to see Paul Levy from Beth Israel Deaconess acknowledge primary care.
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