How faculty, students can improve care while saving money

Medical school faculty could do more to cultivate a new generation of physicians focused on containing health care costs, a new research report finds. It outlines the opportunities and obstacles on the road to greater cost consciousness. The ethical imperative Nine out of 10 students agree that physicians have a role in containing costs as well as limiting unnecessary tests and treatments for the sake of patients and society, according to a report in Academic Medicine. But it found that faculty and physicians must lead the way, modeling cost-conscious behavior and making clear it has a place in clinical practice. “[Students] recognize that excess testing and unnecessary procedures threaten patient safety and that spending more money on health care does not necessarily lead to better health outcomes,” the report’s authors said. The findings are based on a survey of 3,395 students at 10 medical schools, all of them members of the AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. The authors outlined the severity of the cost-control challenge. Up to 30 percent of health care spending is wasted, largely because of unnecessary services, they said. Wasted care exposes patients to added risk, burdens them with more out-of-pocket costs and displaces the care they actually need. Medical education must enlist faculty and future physicians in the campaign to control costs, the authors found. The need to role model cost consciousness However, most students repo...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news