A Resurrection For Hippocratic Medicine?

...Just a few days ago, a paper by Casalino et al, in the journal Health Affairs  clearly showed that compared to practices with 10–19 physicians, practices with 1–2 physicians had 33 percent fewer preventable admissions, and practices with 3–9 physicians had 27 percent fewer. Physician-owned practices had fewer preventable admissions than hospital-owned practices. Those of us who remain fiercely independent and in small practice, do so at our own peril, in the interests of the patient-physician relationship. This study confirms our belief that best quality care occurs when a physician knows her patient as an individual, not just a number. Metrics and big data be damned! This also debunks the Zeke Emmanuel concept that bigger is better when it comes to physician practices.

Private non-profit organizations like the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its franchisee “Boards” frequently flood the media outlets with the notion that patients demand Board Certification and Recertification as a marker of physician quality, as though it is a self-evident truth. Far from it. A recent study by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago found that “when it comes to what being a quality health care provider means, there is a disconnect between how experts and consumers define it“...