When Excuses Run Dry: Transforming The U.S. Health Care System

• Published in: Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 23; pp. VAR117 - VAR120
• Main Authors: Schaeffer, Leonard D, McMurtry, Dana E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chevy Chase The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 2004
• Subjects: Adoption of innovations; Attitudes; Clinical decision making; Clinical medicine; Computerized physician order entry; Consumers; Costs; Darling, Helen; Decision making; Evidence-based medicine; Genetic transformation; Health care; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health services; Incentives; Information technology; Investments; Mass media effects; Medicine; Patients; Pay for performance; Physicians; Quality; Quality improvement; Quality of care; Technology utilization; United States > US

Mainstream media have reported on the wide variation in clinical practice documented for years by health service researchers. Raising awareness of the quality and cost implications of clinical variation, however, is not enough to adopt clinical behavior based on the principles of evidence-based medi...