The Penultimate Post

My week of blogging is almost over, and not a moment too soon. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy blogging. I enjoy writing. I don't enjoy writing about the same topic. Rather, being forced to write about a specific blogger every day is a bit tedious.

Today, Paul Levy has two short stories. The first one is more or less a promotional piece about some of the good work doctors at BIDMC are doing in the Cape Verde Islands.

The second one is an open discussion about quality and cost. It starts with a quote from another Massachusetts hospital administrator who said, "There is lots of evidence that Massachusetts health care is the best in the country."

According to Levy, the comment was in response to someone pointing out how much health care costs in the Bay State. The persuasion point was that better health care was worth more. Levy throws this out to his audience to find evidence to prove or disprove the premise that Massachusetts provides the best health care.

One interesting note on this point is that evidence does exist, which suggest an inverse relationship between quality of care and money spent on health care.

Several of the readers chimed into the comment section to fill in the holes on the administrator's claim. It would seem the consensus is that Massachusetts is at best fifth and possibly seventh in the country, depending on the measures used.

Jim Conway said...
Paul, nothing I’d like more but the data hasn’t yet proven it out. It is within our horizon.

The MA Health Care Quality and Cost Council has a 2012 goal that we would be first among the 50 states.

Hope this data below helps.
Jim Conway QCC and IHI

Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard has MA seventh in the nation

Fourth in the Commonwealth Fund Child Health Score Card

AHRQ has MA on the edge of average to strong

C in palliative care

This is one of those slow blog days. Tune in tomorrow for the final wrap on "Running a Hospital."

Update: More information about the Massachusetts health care ratings.