Quality medical care lacking 45 percent of the time, study finds

WASHINGTON - U.S. patients receive proper medical care from doctors and nurses only 55 percent of the time, regardless of their race, income, education or insurance status, according to a national study published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

A well-functioning health care system should provide recommended levels of care 80 to 90 percent of the time, the study's authors said.
In a performance review of preventive services and care for 30 chronic conditions, including hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, researchers found that it's almost a coin flip as to whether patients get the recommended care from doctors and nurses - even though the standard treatments are widely known.

The findings show that everyone is at roughly equal risk of inadequate care from medical professionals. However, small differences did occur in the care given male and female patients and those from different racial and ethnic groups. "Not only is no place safe, no one is safe from poor quality," said Dr. Steven M. Asch, the lead author and senior natural scientist at Los Angeles-based RAND Health, the nation's largest independent health-policy research organization. "No matter what group we looked at, whether they were black, white, rich or poor, uninsured, insured, educated, uneducated, all of them were receiving mediocre care."

He blamed the nation's "fragmented and chaotic" health care system for making it difficult to deliver quality care. Greater use of computers could improve care by helping doctors track patients' medical histories, he said. In addition, computers could provide electronic reminders about needed tests and appointments. Electronic medical records could log information

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14106914.htm

NATIONALIZE all four corners of healthcare, not just insurance as Kerry proposed

the four are

drs
hospitals
Big Pill
insurance

France rated best... copy that perhaps

during the 19 years I've been without insurance. They've reduced their fees, routinely lying on coding forms to charge me less than the visit would ordinarily cost, helping me choose the biggest bang for the buck in pharmaceuticals.

There wre a few of them who are in it for the money, but seriously, they could have made a lot more money had they gone into a brokerage house and for far fewer years of school and with far fewer sleepless nights.

And yes, we need to copy France or Canada or any system the rich are not permitted to opt out of unless they leave the country for care. Any system the rich don't use will be underfunded, and you can bet the rent on that.

you have been very lucky in which ones random chance had you run into.

in any large population, a few patients will be lucky.

I was just commenting on the vast majority of our docs, as documented by the OP study. They are not healers, but greedheads.

Sad scene, overall. We must get the greedheads out of our health system. Sweden, last figures i have seen, paid docs one sixth as much as we do. No one should profit from patients' desperation to get well.

currently we see the spectacle of bill collectors for docs, siezing the life savings and houses of the sick elderly. Disgusting.

ccc