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Avoid These 5 Highly Overused Treatments
At a time when healthcare providers are worrying about possible cutbacks in payments, physicians and hospitals are stepping up efforts to identify and avoid unnecessary procedures that add to the nation’s healthcare bill and pose unnecessary risks for patients.
On July 8, a national summit involving a wide sweep of medical groups, as well as hospital organizations, government agencies, and public interest organizations, issued a policy paper detailing strategies for dealing with 5 overused treatments that can harm patient safety and quality:
1. antibiotics for the common cold
2. blood transfusions
3. ear tubes for children
4. early-scheduled births
5. cardiac stents.
For example, it costs about $25,000 to implant a stent, and an early-scheduled birth with a caesarean section can cost $28,000 compared with $18,500 for a vaginal delivery. Implanting ear tubes in children is the most common surgical procedure in the country, costing a total of $2 billion a year, and unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for upper respiratory infections cost an estimated $1 billion annually.
There is mounting evidence that all of these treatments are often unnecessary. Treatments always come with risks, which are acceptable if they can improve a patient’s condition, but the risks are not acceptable if there are no benefits, he said.
via Blogger http://chiropractic-lane.blogspot.com/2013/08/avoid-these-5-highly-overused-treatments.html
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