Healthcare's Lost Weekend - NYTimes

Healthcare's Lost Weekend - NYTimes 10/3/2010

This article addresses two areas in which NYC hospitals are attempting to improve quality and reduce cost: (1) More services on the weekends, (2) Quality assessments.

The article highlights that making physicians work weekends is both a necessity and a convenience, because it will improve quality and reduce cost, while also giving people the ability to see a physician more easily on the weekends. Also highlighted is the use of quality assessment and management to allow health providers to be more efficient and therefore reduce costs.

This article brings to mind a few questions:

In regards to expanding the physician's role to the weekend...

1. What types of physicians would this impact the most? Are we talking only emergency physicians available, or extending primary care services to the weekends? If so, is there enough physicians to meet these needs?

2. Does expanding the hours of healthcare provider add additional administrative costs that will then outweigh the cost savings?

3. Is this model encouraging more overall use of healthcare?

Thoughts????