Metrics

Building Better Metrics: Immunizations and Asking the Right Question

Washington State Law allows vaccine exemptions on the basis of religious, philosophical, or personal reasons; therefore, immunizations rates are considerably lower (85%) compared to states where exemptions rules are tighter. Immunization rates are directly proportional to the narrow scope of state vaccine exemptions laws. Immunization rates are used to “rate” the primary care physician despite the fact we have little influence on the outcome according to scientific studies.

2020-05-14T04:07:02+00:00October 10, 2017|Categories: Physician, Policy|Tags: , , , , , , |

Does Life Expectancy Matter?

Health policy experts, IT executives, and politicians jumped on the ACA, HITECH, and MACRA bandwagon while clinging tightly to their misguided belief that more electronic records, ACO’s, care coordinators, administrators, pay for performance schemes, and other fads or gimmicks would improve health outcomes; it turns out one of the most fundamental measures of healthcare quality, our life expectancy, is no better than before.

2020-05-04T01:38:47+00:00December 20, 2016|Categories: Patient, Policy|Tags: , , , |

Building Better Metrics: Focus on Patient Empowerment

Over the last century, health care has morphed from a system valuing individual responsibility to one grounded in physician dependency. Patients are viewed as clients who ravenously consume scarce resources, while physicians dispense answers and guidance for a price deemed too high by bureaucrats to be sustainable. Knowing how invested patients are in understanding their conditions and their willingness to take responsibility for their good or bad choices are metrics worth tracking. It is important to remember physicians make recommendations, educate their patients, and would do best by engaging in shared decision making with those patients. That entire process saves money and improves how patients view their quality of care.

2020-05-14T03:19:26+00:00September 27, 2016|Categories: Policy|Tags: , , , |
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