Future of medicine: Incentivizing quality care
Check out Kaiser Health News' piece on Maryland's system of rewarding hospital quality and penalizing hospital shortcomings. Johns Hopkins Hospital and Howard County General did better than average; St. Joseph Medical Center and University of Maryland Medical Center were among those who did worse. KHN's piece in the Washington Post includes a link to a scorecard for all Maryland hospitals.
The publicity-related incentives here are probably even more powerful than the financial incentives. You don't want your institution on the below-average list for bed sores, infections, accidental punctures etc.
Comments
In the free market we have these incentives naturally. We vote with our dollars and those institutions that give poor quality service are automatically punished with poor reviews and less business.
It's nice that we're trying to mimic this in some way, but I can't help but think that it would happen on its own if we opened up the healthcare industry a bit more and let the market function as it should.
Posted by: John J. Walters | February 25, 2011 10:49 AM