Flutterby™! : Exploring the Harmful Effects of Healthcare

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Exploring the Harmful Effects of Healthcare

2011-03-28 18:06:35.591748+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Journal of the American Medical Association: Exploring the Harmful Effects of Healthcare (PDF) (paid JAMA link).

Although the potential for harm is substantial, both physicians and patients generally embrace technology enthusiastically—implicitly trusting in its benefit before adequate assessment is made. However, higher-intensity care generally does not improve survival, and complications of medical care accounted for 1.1 million hospitalizations in 2006—costing nearly $42 billion.10 Medicare spending shows wide per-capita variability across the United States, with pa tients receiving 60% more care in high-cost than in low-cost cities. Paradoxically, patients in higher-cost cities are more likely to die of colon cancer, myocardial infarction, and hip fracture.

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#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-29 16:35:51.843548+00 by: andylyke

If I've done he math correctly, that's nearly $40,000 per hospitalization to correct iatrogenic disorders. According to Glen Beck, we have the best health care in the world. (Unless you go back to his CNN days, when he was shrieking about the terrible health care in the US.)