Our group interviewed Tom Macy, the current VP of operations for ambulatory clinic and clinical programs at the Nebraska Medical Center. Previously, he was the CEO of the orthopedic hospital. Right now he is in charge of around 52 locations and about 600 physicians. Nebraska Medical center is the starts largest and highest rated hospital. It allows access to more than 1,000 physicians and 676 licensed hospital beds. One of the five problems Macy addressed was the rising cost of health care. The main issue is that running a hospital is like running a business. The hospital must make money to survive and like in many businesses, wanting to make more is just human nature. The difficulty is figuring out a way to decrease costs without having
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Medical technology increase the cost of health care in two main ways: increasing range of treatments and replacing low cost ways of treatment. With advances in technology, physicians are able to treat terminal and acute conditions which were previously untreatable. Also, the technology may find ways to treat new or secondary diseases within a disease (7). For diseases which already have treatment, the technology may find better ways of treatment. However, the cost is often much higher than previous methods. Since medical technology has so many benefits, many hospitals believe they need every new machine or procedure. Often times if one hospital in an area gets a new machine many times other hospitals in the area think they need the same so that they don’t lose business. This leads to an excess of supply. The development of new medical technology is not bad for the medical care in general since more people can get treatment, however it does increase …show more content…
One people can’t afford the health care. A lot of people over the years have not been able to afford health insurance. However, even insured people have trouble paying for large medical expenses or expensive diseases because of the high cost. The other is that providers have trouble staying in business. When patients can’t pay the provider takes the brunt of the cost. The two solutions which are currently being looked at are clinical effectiveness and technology assessment and consumer driven health care. In his article, Thrope suggests that there be a committee similar to the FDA to judge the effectiveness of technology (5). The two measures which he believes should be standard in any new medical technology is that it is cost effective and outperforms what is currently on the market. Although it may not eliminate the fact that multiple hospitals in an area will repeat purchase the same machines, it will reduce the over cost of health
Medical technology increase the cost of health care in two main ways: increasing range of treatments and replacing low cost ways of treatment. With advances in technology, physicians are able to treat terminal and acute conditions which were previously untreatable. Also, the technology may find ways to treat new or secondary diseases within a disease (7). For diseases which already have treatment, the technology may find better ways of treatment. However, the cost is often much higher than previous methods. Since medical technology has so many benefits, many hospitals believe they need every new machine or procedure. Often times if one hospital in an area gets a new machine many times other hospitals in the area think they need the same so that they don’t lose business. This leads to an excess of supply. The development of new medical technology is not bad for the medical care in general since more people can get treatment, however it does increase …show more content…
One people can’t afford the health care. A lot of people over the years have not been able to afford health insurance. However, even insured people have trouble paying for large medical expenses or expensive diseases because of the high cost. The other is that providers have trouble staying in business. When patients can’t pay the provider takes the brunt of the cost. The two solutions which are currently being looked at are clinical effectiveness and technology assessment and consumer driven health care. In his article, Thrope suggests that there be a committee similar to the FDA to judge the effectiveness of technology (5). The two measures which he believes should be standard in any new medical technology is that it is cost effective and outperforms what is currently on the market. Although it may not eliminate the fact that multiple hospitals in an area will repeat purchase the same machines, it will reduce the over cost of health