Health Care Run by Those "Who See the Practice of Medicine as a Set of Economic Transactions," or as a "Moral Endeavor?"

Calls are getting louder for restoring medicine and health care as a calling that puts patients first, versus a business that puts money first.  For example, in the conclusion of her opening talk for the 2015 Lown Institute Annual Conference: the Road to RightCare, Shannon Brownlee said, [with italics added for emphasis]So today I stand before you not as a writer turned health policy expert turned health care activist, though I’m still all of those things. I stand before you as a mother, a wife, a daughter . . . and a citizen. I stand before you filled on the one hand, with dismay . . . and on the other hand with a full measure of hope. I stand here to welcome you to the work we are all doing to transform healthcare. And our first step is to name our task. It is not just stamping out overuse, though we must do that. It is not just ensuring that patients get the care they need. Though that is unfinished business. Getting to the right care also requires that we recognize the historic choice we face between opposing world views. On one side are those who see the practice of medicine as a set of economic transactions, and healthcare as just another business. This side thinks the market solves all ills. This side sees the health professions as the labor needed to run a highly profitable industry. You are the 'providers' of services -- the help. Patients are revenue. Excuse me, 'consumers.'On the other side of this divide are those who see healthcare as a moral endeavor. T...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: generic management generic managers market fundamentalism Source Type: blogs