What Doctors Fear: Our Health Care System
What is a doctor's greatest fear? According to an April 2006 issue of TIME magazine, it is the fear of being a patient in the U.S. health care system. One would think that, as a doctor, one would be well equipped to demand - and receive - the best our health care system has to offer. While doctors are often in a better position than most to identify the hazards and omissions of our health care system, they cannot necessarily avoid them, even when they become patients themselves.
Doctors are among the first to acknowledge that bad doctors practice bad medicine, often undetected. However, doctors have watched the U.S. health care system buckle over the years by insurance costs, rising competition, growing bureaucracy, and even improvements in technology that may introduce new risks as they reduce old ones. As the TIME writers note, "their innate resistance to treatment carries a message for the rest of us as well. It requires almost a stroke of luck to enter a U.S. hospital and receive precisely the right treatment--no more, and no less."
As noted in TIME, a landmark study by RAND Corporation (RAND), a nonprofit research organization, published in 2003 found that adults in the U.S. received, on average, just 55% of recommended care for their conditions. For instance, diabetics received only 45% of recommended care (with only 25% having regular blood sugar monitoring), and patients with hypertension received less than 65% of recommended care. The study involved 12 metropolitan areas and collected data over a two year period.
To read the full story in TIME, please see Q: What Scares Doctors? A: Being the Patient. For the complete RAND study discussed above, please see RAND Health, The First National Report Card on Quality of Health Care in America.