Support for Efforts by Health Care Professionals to Improve Quality

Federal policy can make a big difference in the quality of care that patients receive. Yet excellence in health care comes not from Washington but from health care professionals working with patients to provide the best possible care. As the health care treatments available become more complex and advanced, it will become even more important to create an environment that encourages hospital-, physician-, and community-based efforts to eliminate medical errors, prevent complications, and avoid unnecessary costs by making sure that the right treatment is used quickly and effectively.

Many such local initiatives have demonstrated proven benefits, such as: 30% efficiency gain in intensive care and even larger reductions in postoperative complications at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City; large reductions in the time to effective treatment for critically ill emergency room patients at Overlook Hospital in New Jersey; and substantial reductions in mortality for bypass surgery patients treated in a group of Northern New England hospitals.

But too often, efforts by health care professionals to improve quality are impeded by liability concerns, which have been aggravated by dramatic increases in malpractice premiums in many parts of the country this year. Providers are afraid to take steps to identify ways to improve care, for fear that their efforts to improve quality and safety will be used against them in litigation. And in many cases, Medicare pays health care providers less when they deliver better care that prevents costly complications.