Study: Most Get Mediocre Health Care

[deadparrot]

BOSTON - Startling research from the biggest study ever of U.S. health care quality suggests that Americans — rich, poor, black, white — get roughly equal treatment, but it's woefully mediocre for all.

"This study shows that health care has equal-opportunity defects," said Dr. Donald Berwick, who runs the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass.

The survey of nearly 7,000 patients, reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, considered only urban-area dwellers who sought treatment, but it still challenged some stereotypes: These blacks and Hispanics actually got slightly better medical treatment than whites.

While the researchers acknowledged separate evidence that minorities fare worse in some areas of expensive care and suffer more from some conditions than whites, their study found that once in treatment, minorities' overall care appears similar to that of whites.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mediocre_health_care

[Warpy]

1. Even the VIP units in big city hospitals are short staffed

because labor is the first place a bloodless bean counter looks to save costs. That means service has been declining for many years. This is annoying in retail, but it can be fatal in healthcare.

No bandaid fixes like the DLC proposes or silly savings account scams that rich GOPers think will work will do any good at all. The system is irretrievably broken. Only by getting the for profit insurance companies and hospital chains the hell out of the business will we get a decent health care system back. Nothing wlse has a chance.

[Rose Siding]

2. This is on the MSN homepage now

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11842861/

BOSTON - Startling research from the biggest study ever of U.S. health care quality suggests that Americans — rich, poor, black, white — get roughly equal treatment, but it’s woefully mediocre for all.

“This study shows that health care has equal-opportunity defects,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, who runs the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass.

The survey of nearly 7,000 patients, reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, considered only urban-area dwellers who sought treatment, but it still challenged some stereotypes: These blacks and Hispanics actually got slightly better medical treatment than whites.