Comments on: Health Care Checklists - Part II http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/ Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:17:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Julia Kohutiak, RN http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5159 Julia Kohutiak, RN Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:07:20 +0000 http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5159 Firstly, I want to congratulate Harvard Pilgrim in being #1 for several years now. Secondly, I would like to say, for all the monies in the world, all the statisticians in the USA, all the politicians in the world CANNOT make any changes unless the consumers understand the very basics of their treatment in their healthcare plan. What I am trying to say, that none of these professionals have open up medicaid, medicare, managed care or self pay programs. How can any of you understand this without being at this basic level. All you do is put in numbers to see what works or not. As an administrator in behaioral health systems such as: hospitals, partial hospitalizations, intensive out-patient programs and home health programs, I have seen too many patients fall thru the cracks. I have seen too many patients discharged from programs including doctor's offices, who cannot even read their prescription, let alone understand what it says. As a behavioral health consultant, who has developed the tools necessary to promote empowerment in the patient. I really would like to challenge the powers that make decisions. Do managed care companies use cost-management techniques when they describe administrative decisions that deny, prevent, interrupt, or terminate health care. What is a healthcare checklist worth, if the basic premise of education is not inserted. You can respond to: http://medicationmanagement.blogspot.com/ or altairhealthsystems@gmail.com Firstly, I want to congratulate Harvard Pilgrim in being #1 for several years now.
Secondly, I would like to say, for all the monies in the world, all the statisticians in the USA, all the politicians in the world CANNOT make any changes unless the consumers understand the very basics of their treatment in their healthcare plan. What I am trying to say, that none of these professionals have open up medicaid, medicare, managed care or self pay programs. How can any of you understand this without being at this basic level. All you do is put in numbers to see what works or not. As an administrator in behaioral health systems such as: hospitals, partial hospitalizations, intensive out-patient programs and home health programs, I have seen too many patients fall thru the cracks. I have seen too many patients discharged from programs including doctor’s offices, who cannot even read their prescription, let alone understand what it says. As a behavioral health consultant, who has developed the tools necessary to promote empowerment in the patient. I really would like to challenge the powers that make decisions. Do managed care companies use cost-management techniques when they describe administrative decisions that deny, prevent, interrupt, or terminate health care.
What is a healthcare checklist worth, if the basic premise of education is not inserted. You can respond to: http://medicationmanagement.blogspot.com/ or altairhealthsystems@gmail.com

]]> By: Dr. Val http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5125 Dr. Val Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:53:42 +0000 http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5125 The Op-Ed states: "A checklist is an alteration in medical care no less than an experimental drug is. Studying an experimental drug in people without federal monitoring and explicit written permission from each patient is unethical and illegal. Therefore it is no less unethical and illegal to do the same with a checklist. Indeed, a checklist may require even more stringent oversight, the administration ruled, because the data gathered in testing it could put not only the patients but also the doctors at risk — by exposing how poorly some of them follow basic infection-prevention procedures." That's just insane. This is why the government should be LESS involved, not MORE involved in healthcare. The Op-Ed states: “A checklist is an alteration in medical care no less than an experimental drug is. Studying an experimental drug in people without federal monitoring and explicit written permission from each patient is unethical and illegal. Therefore it is no less unethical and illegal to do the same with a checklist. Indeed, a checklist may require even more stringent oversight, the administration ruled, because the data gathered in testing it could put not only the patients but also the doctors at risk — by exposing how poorly some of them follow basic infection-prevention procedures.”

That’s just insane. This is why the government should be LESS involved, not MORE involved in healthcare.

]]> By: Ian M http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5124 Ian M Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:22:55 +0000 http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/health-care-costs/health-care-checklists-part-ii/#comment-5124 I think it’s right on target to be questioning why the AMA, and other patient advocacy groups, are not railing against the Federal Government’s decision to halt this program – or at least why they are not doing so more vocally. There is no mention of this issue on the AMA’s website, but there is a link to a bill that the AMA “led the passage” of: S. 544, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. This bill is designed to both improve patient care, and to streamline the process by which such improvements are implemented through evidence-based performance measures. These processes and measures include: “(A) Efforts to improve patient safety and the quality of health care delivery. (B) The collection and analysis of patient safety work product. (C) The development and dissemination of information with respect to improving patient safety, such as recommendations, protocols, or information regarding best practices. (D) The utilization of patient safety work product for the purposes of encouraging a culture of safety and of providing feedback and assistance to effectively minimize patient risk.” The bill also establishes the legal definition and precedent for “Patient Safety Work Products,” which are defined as “any data, reports, records, memoranda, analyses (such as root cause analyses), or written or oral statements…” which “…are developed by a patient safety organization for the conduct of patient safety activities; and which could result in improved patient safety, health care quality, or health care outcomes…” Now, it’s not entirely clear whether a checklist would fit into the strictest confines of this definition, but at first look, it would appear so. In introducing the bill on their website, the AMA vows to “ensure the law’s implementation.” Here’s their chance. I think it’s right on target to be questioning why the AMA, and other patient advocacy groups, are not railing against the Federal Government’s decision to halt this program – or at least why they are not doing so more vocally. There is no mention of this issue on the AMA’s website, but there is a link to a bill that the AMA “led the passage” of: S. 544, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005.
This bill is designed to both improve patient care, and to streamline the process by which such improvements are implemented through evidence-based performance measures. These processes and measures include:

“(A) Efforts to improve patient safety and the quality of health care delivery. (B) The collection and analysis of patient safety work product. (C) The development and dissemination of information with respect to improving patient safety, such as recommendations, protocols, or information regarding best practices. (D) The utilization of patient safety work product for the purposes of encouraging a culture of safety and of providing feedback and assistance to effectively minimize patient risk.”

The bill also establishes the legal definition and precedent for “Patient Safety Work Products,” which are defined as “any data, reports, records, memoranda, analyses (such as root cause analyses), or written or oral statements…” which “…are developed by a patient safety organization for the conduct of patient safety activities; and which could result in improved patient safety, health care quality, or health care outcomes…” Now, it’s not entirely clear whether a checklist would fit into the strictest confines of this definition, but at first look, it would appear so.

In introducing the bill on their website, the AMA vows to “ensure the law’s implementation.” Here’s their chance.

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