SCHWARTZ HEALTHCARE-IT BLOG

Our Hidden Health Crisis: Misdiagnosis

Jerome Groopman's widely reviewed book "How Doctors Think" highlights the problem of misdiagnosis in America's healthcare system. Misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment are critical to quality healthcare but are often overlooked, despite misdiagnoses happening almost 20 percent of the time and wrong treatment plans 60 percent.

Is the current emphasis on EMR, transparency, health plan and cost efficiencies to improve quality misplaced? No, but to think these are the big answers to achieving quality misses the point. Healthcare is the right diagnosis, the correct treatment, a condition/illness healed the first time. Consumers want healthcare delivered correctly the first time, not having the system experiment on them.

Quality improvement impacts not just consumers, but also employer group and health plans costs. Three to five percent of cases represent 30-50 percent of healthcare premium costs and increases. Focusing on this critical segment of the medical population can improve healthcare quality while lowering costs for employers and health plans.

Companies like Best Doctors, Isabel Healthcare, ParadigmHealth, Health Dialog, ActiveHealth Management and Quantum Healthcare are addressing the problem from different angles.  Isabel Healthcare offers a diagnosis reminder system for hospitals. In the employer and payor world, Best Doctors' medical intervention service brings medical expertise to bear on individual complex cases. ActiveHealth's automated, evidence-based Care Considerations alert patients and their doctors about medical issues and treatments.

More attention should be put on the issue of misdiagnosis, which is far and away a problem whose solution impacts quality and cost more than any health IT issue.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on May 1, 2007 at 4:24 PM
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