The only constant in healthcare is change.
Across the advanced economies, healthcare services seem to be subject to an unending series of reforms. In fact, there have been so many that it’s hard to see how there can be anything left to improve. It’s like soap powder: every generation washes whiter than the one before, until it’s hard to understand how we can still walk down streets without being dazzled by people’s shirts.
With the number of reforms there have been over the last three decades, one would expect healthcare today to have reached a pitch of perfection not known to mankind since the Garden of Eden.
In fact, of course the problems remain undiminished. We're as far as ever from reaching the elusive goal of making healthcare as effective as possible, in the most cost-effective possible way.
In today’s climate, with massive pressure on costs, the emphasis is more than ever on the ‘cost-effective’ element. In Britain, for example, I recently came across a pathology lab manager who has been told to cut costs by 25%. It's hard to see how any organisation can make that kind of reduction while still maintaining services. That difficulty won’t, however, stop us demanding healthcare that is as good as possible and available whenever we need it.
If those two, apparently irreconcilable, demand are both to be met, healthcare professionals will more than ever need access to excellent information on which to base their decisions. They need to know just who is receiving what treatments, delivered in what way and consuming how much resource, so that they can identify where they can find economies without cutting care.
Informing professionals is a key element to reforming healthcare. Generally, though, information in hospitals and other healthcare organisations is patchy, often inaccurate and far from comprehensive.
The aim of this blog is to provide a forum to providers and consumers of healthcare information to discuss some of the key questions around this area. Please feel free to submit any material you’d like to see included, to:
hospitalconsiderations@gmail.com
Many thanks and enjoy the posts
David Beeson
