BMJ  2007;334:1086 (26 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39223.635451.59

Observations

Yankee doodling

Great health care, guaranteed

A 90 day guarantee on surgery may be the first step to improving quality outcomes in the USA

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The front page story in the New York Times on 17 May (www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/17quality.html) was about a healthcare system in Pennsylvania that has been giving a 90 day guarantee on its coronary artery bypass surgeries since February 2006. For a fixed price, patients get the operation, postoperative care, and any necessary follow-up treatment, including rehospitalisation and even repeat surgery. There are no extra charges. This is news in America, where we are used to unit pricing in health care. That generally leads, of course, to a perverse incentive: if you do a poor job and extra care is needed, you get paid more.

The newspaper likened the surgical guarantee to a warranty on a new car or a home appliance. The healthcare system, Geisinger, guarantees that all will go well or it will fix the problem, at no additional cost to the purchaser . . . er . . . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Use of process measures to monitor the quality of clinical practice

Richard J Lilford, Celia A Brown, and Jon Nicholl
BMJ 2007 335: 648-650. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Lilford, R. J, Brown, C. A, Nicholl, J. (2007). Use of process measures to monitor the quality of clinical practice. BMJ 335: 648-650 [Full text]  

Online poll

Find out more>>