Chaos and Organization in Health Care

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Book Review Chaos and Organization in Health Care

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Introduction

• In Chaos and Organization in Health Care,
  leading Harvard physicians, Thomas Lee and James
  Mongan, give a fresh perspective into the root
  cause of the problems seen in health care and
  offer their treatment plan for a favorable
  prognosis.
• In the past 25 years alone, health care costs
  have increased an average of 9 percent per year,
  but safety and reliability continue to receive a
  failing grade.

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• By presenting industry research, the authors
  demonstrate that rising pharmaceutical prices,
  higher physician wages, the medical malpractice
  systemwhich gives rise to defensive medicineand
  even the aging of the baby boomer generation are
  not the culprits in the growth of overall health
  care spending.
• Progress in medical science, which increases
  the cost of health care as the authors argue,
  consists of the technological innovations that
  lead to new drugs, tests, and surgical
  techniques. As dramatic advancements in medicine
  are continuously made, more chaos is created and
  more increases are experienced in the cost of
  health care.

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• The delivery of state-of-the-art care becomes
  increasingly more complex since progress
  continues to exponentially add new information
  and more options for testing and treating
  conditions. The impact of progress is most
  evident in the care of complex patients, which
  account for 5 percent of patients and 50 percent
  of costs.
• To actually lower costs and improve quality
  a heavy dose of information technology
  infrastructure which will improve the
  reliability, safety, and efficiency of both
  outpatient and inpatient care by coordinating
  physicians, non-physicians, and patients into a
  team

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Conclusion

• To make health care more reliable, efficient,
  safer, and affordable for everyone the industry
  must organize itself. Access to basic care for
  every citizen is a moral question that have yet
  to answer, and as the authors point out, it is a
  social commitment made by every other developed
  country (and many not-so-developed ones)

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