Unfortunately, providing the best services in health care is not contagious, like a virus. There is a wide variation in the quality and cost, including examples of providers who work hard to provide the best quality and the lowest cost. Culture, economy, and commitment are some of the reasons for the wide variety of health services.
Six of the best health agencies are studying the best strategies for the most common and costly diseases. They work together to collect data on the best strategies and then share that information and encourage other suppliers to adopt best system strategies.
James Weinstein, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice discusses the new project. Project participants are Mayo, Intermountain, Cleveland Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Geisinger Health System and Denver Health. Weinstein said: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got It's not very good and we can not do it anymore .."
The six organizations involved in the project serving more than 10 million people and exchange information on medical conditions they are investigating. The data imply clinical protocols that will help determine treatment strategies that are more profitable. These organizations then send their results to other health care systems across the US There are other organizations that plan to join the investigation.
The first of eight treatments to study the condition is total knee replacement surgery. There are about 300,000 knee replacements performed each year. The cost of this surgery can range from $ 16,000 to $ 24,000. There is a great variety in the rate of the number of people who have the procedure, complications and readmissions. It is expected that the data on total knee replacements to be ready in February 2011.
Diabetes, heart failure, asthma, weight loss surgery, childbirth, surgery of the spine and depression are the other seven to study after knee replacement.
The cost and the results of treatment of medical conditions is not the only information that is collected. The project also focuses on patient preferences for treatment options
The Dartmouth Atlas is a collection of data that was collected from Medicare claims documenting the change in the cost and delivery of care. These data were obtained from all regions in the US As for the current project data, Weinstein said: "We will collect data from Dartmouth and we can compare Dartmouth Atlas Let's see what the best results in the the lowest cost will share this data with the other .. and publish the recommendations of others across the country to consider. "
The new law on health care combined with the interest of entrepreneurs in controlling health costs should increase interest and use of recommendations created by the project. Weinstein said: "The more we distribute this and from that, the better is it to us as a nation."