The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has reaffirmed that our healthcare system is too complex and too costly. Economic and quality barriers are listed as inefficiencies and an overwhelming amount of data. In 2009, 30% of healthcare spending, or 30%, went toward costs of unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other inefficiencies. The IOM does note that we can combat these problems by turning our healthcare system into a "learning system" with the focus on continuously monitoring, attending to, and disseminating lessons learned from every care experience and new research discovery.
To achieve this goal, IOM recommends the following changes:
(1) real-time access to medical records for both patients and healthcare providers,
(2) using technology to streamline administrative tasks,
(3) constant assessment and quality improvement by hospitals and providers,
(4) immediate and easy access to information related to costs of tests and procedures and to reliable outcome data,
(5) seamless and coordinated care across settings based on improved communication,
(6) incorporating patient needs and preferences fully into care decisions, and
(7) avoiding spending time on costs of care that do not improve health.
The continuous improvement called for by IOM advises the use of new technologies to collect clinical data at the point of care. Improved teamwork, transparency in healthcare organizations, and full engagement of patients and their families as partners in healthcare are advised. Mobile technologies and electronic health records are available to better capture and share health data. Innovations should be readily shared. And IOM emphasizes that payment structures should be revised to provide payment models and incentives that reward high-value care.
Source: Nurses.com News. IOM: profound changes needed in U.S. healthcare. September 6, 2012. Available at http://news.nurse.com/article/20120906/NATIONAL02/109170008. Accessed October 1, 2012.
Submitted by: Robin E. Pattillo, PhD, RN, CNL, News Editor at [email protected].