Two Opinion Pieces Address IOM Report On Emergency Care System
Cal Thomas, Baltimore Sun: The report made the "worst possible recommendation" for addressing problems at U.S. emergency departments in saying Congress should create a new federal agency and allocate billions of dollars, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece. Thomas writes that "systems thinking" -- a concept of "focus[ing] on the person or customer and his or her satisfaction" -- should be used to improve the quality of hospital care instead of the IOM recommendation because systems thinking "does not require more staff or expensive consultants, and it certainly does not need another bureaucratic, costly and inefficient government agency, which can only make things worse." Systems thinking "is being tried at several hospitals throughout the country, reducing patient waiting time, dramatically cutting costs and delivering quality care to patients," Thomas writes. A PBS documentary titled "Good News: How Hospitals Heal Themselves" shows how a hospital that implemented systems thinking "dramatically improve[ed] its emergency care," Thomas writes. He concludes, "If ever there was an idea whose time has come, this is the idea, and this is the time" (Thomas, Baltimore Sun, 6/21).
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Philadelphia Inquirer: U.S. EDs have "grave problems," according to the IOM report, and the "situation threatens all Americans," Frist writes in an Inquirer opinion piece. Although lawmakers have taken some steps to address the issue, "no single piece of legislation can solve a crisis that took decades to develop," Frist adds. "To begin with, we must fix the broken medical liability system," he writes, adding, "We should also build more community health centers to provide free or inexpensive care for the uninsured, roll out privacy protected electronic medical records for everyone who wants them and work to cover more Americans who currently lack health insurance." Frist writes that the problems "we see in emergency rooms are symptoms of larger problems and deficiencies" in the U.S. health care system, concluding, "Fixing them stands as one of the great public policy challenges of this decade" (Frist, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/22).
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Douã piese de Opinie Adresa OIM Raport privind sistemul de îngrijire de urgenþã - Two Opinion Pieces Address IOM Report On Emergency Care System - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate