Physician Impact on the Total Cost of Care
| Autor: | Lazar J. Greenfield, David R. Morlock, David A. Butz, Paul A. Taheri, Louisa C. Griffes |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2000 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty Cost Control Total cost Variable cost Direct Service Costs Indirect costs Trauma Centers Physicians medicine Humans Operations management Hospital Costs Fixed cost health care economics and organizations Cost allocation business.industry Cost Allocation Rationing Cost centre Original Articles United States Surgery Cost reduction business |
| Zdroj: | Annals of Surgery. 231:432-435 |
| ISSN: | 0003-4932 |
| DOI: | 10.1097/00000658-200003000-00017 |
| Popis: | Cost containment, cost reduction, and diminished resource utilization have become the buzzwords of current surgical practice. Physicians are bombarded with new protocols, critical pathways, and process changes that purportedly lead to cost savings and are repeatedly told that reducing resource consumption contributes significantly to the financial success of the health system. Toward that end, physicians continue to expand their current hospital roles beyond simply rationing care to more fundamental redesigns of the way they provide care. For example, they have shifted care from inpatient to outpatient settings, implemented more advanced home health interventions, and applied emerging technologies. They have thereby reduced variable costs, at the same time creating a different allocation of institutional fixed and indirect costs. However, few data have been available to evaluate these efforts, which are predicated on the belief that the total cost of care is highly sensitive to the level of patient activity. Unless variable costs make up the vast majority of total costs, physician efforts to achieve major cost reductions by simply decreasing resource utilization may not yield major reductions in cost per patient. The purpose of this study is to determine the actual distribution of the cost allocations on the trauma service and how these allocations can aid in directing the efficacy of physician efforts in cost containment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|