Helping Doctors Choose Wisely: Three Innovative Principles For Health Care Organizations

Achieving higher value, cost-conscious care that eliminates waste and optimizes quality is a crucial priority. Recent professional and policy initiatives aiming to spur individual physicians to achieve that priority include the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Choosing Wisely Campaign, the High Value Cost-Conscious Care Initiative from the American College of Physicians, and new content in the American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics. Although professional organizations can be influential, physicians work in organizations, and evidence suggests health care organizations influence individual physician behavior. Systems such as large multispecialty medical groups can support individual behavior and provide processes that make errors less likely and improve quality. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are an example of a change in the organization of care that aims to decrease waste by aligning business incentives with efficiency and quality, rather than volume. Within and beyond ACOs, how can health care organizations create supportive systems so that individual physicians can deliver high-value, cost-conscious, and patient-centered care? We’ve been asking primary care and specialty physicians about their practices and responsibilities regarding health care costs in surveys and focus groups for the last several years. Ten focus groups with 62 primary care and specialty physicians in the northern Midwest who worked mostly in not-for-profit health care org...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Payment Policy Public Health ABIM ACOs ACP AMA Choosing Wisely delivery High-Value Care Innovation Physicians Source Type: blogs