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Hospital provides inpatient services to about 4,200 patients a year. On the outpatient side, the hospital treats about 16,600 people per year in its Emergency Room, 4,150 in its outpatient department, and another 14,700 through its home health department. It also provides laboratory work, therapies and radiology services to about 18,000 outpatients.
Efforts to reduce the cost of health care through greater efficiency and managed care are working. Last year was the first year in recent history that the cost of health care nationally did not increase.
Further changes to the United States’ health care delivery system are coming. “Capitation” is the new word in health care these days. Under a capitated system, health care plans pay physicians a flat fee to care for a patient for a year. The physician decides how to spend those dollars, and must manage the care of his or her patients as efficiently as possible. Some patients will require more care than this flat fee covers, while others will require less.
Capitation represents a radical shift in the way health care works. Physicians will keep the allocated dollars that they do not spend on their patients, thus shifting the focus of health care from treatment to prevention. A physician’s incentive will be in keeping people healthy rather than treating them when they become ill.
The American health care system is continuing to evolve, and this will mean further adjustments for patients and health care providers alike. The good news is that the health care market place is driving down the cost of health care without a political move toward health care reform.
The best system will survive. Charles Darwin would be pleased.
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