‘Worst’ Hospitals Treat Much Higher Shares Of Minority And Poor Patients......

[global1]

Here's a link to this interesting article that is kind of scary.

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/10/05/new-health-affairs-worst-hospitals-treat-much-higher-shares-of-minority-and-poor-patients/

I'm concerned about what will happen to hospital care when 40 to 50 million more people come into the system in 2014 when they get insurance coverage. Will hospital care suffer because of that. Many of the people that will be entering the system then will probably be the sickest, poorest and least educated. If hospitals are squeezed financially, if they don't add additional professional staff to be able to handle the increased load - what will happen to patient care?

[FarCenter]

1. Move staff from optional medical treatments to necessary medical care

We can't afford more medical costs.

So the solution must be to shift what we are spending on. Fewer boob jobs and more emergency care.

[cbayer]

2. Your concerns are quite valid.

There are already shortages of primary care physicians and psychiatrists, and those in practice are generally overwhelmed. Nursing shortages remain a big problem for hospitals.

The poorest performing hospitals have new incentives to improve, but once there are more patients covered by some kind of payer, the workload should spread out more evenly among hospitals.

The transition is going to be interesting, but I remain hopeful that it will eventually lead to the system that we want.

[HereSince1628]

3. My guess...

Patients will be in contact with non-MD's much more often.