Try to imagine a health care system where you, the patient, get to call the shots. You phone the doctor in the morning and schedule an appointment for later that day. Upon arrival, you’re immediately told, “the doctor can see you now.” You get your diagnosis, and a treatment is prescribed using the very latest in medical science. You would never again be asked to wear a “johnny.”
No more conflicting advice and opinions, no chance of incompatible medications from a gaggle of specialists who don’t know your name, no risk of death from medical error; and never a problem with the billing. That’s the scenario Don Berwick imagines though he knows the current system cannot deliver it. The pediatrician turned prophet scribbles out a radical prescription for curing American health care.
Guests:
Don Berwick, clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Harvard Medical School, President and CEO of Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI), a non-profit with the mission of improving helath care worldwide.