Health Stories in the News – Aug. 14

Allow Seattle Children’s to expand, says Seattle Times

The Seattle City Council should reverse ruling of a hearing examiner who has rejected Seattle Children’s expansion plans, says Seattle Times argues in an editorial today’s paper.

The hearing examiner found that hospital’s planned expansion, which would add 1.5 million square feet of space on its Lauralhurst campus, was inappropriate for the surrounding residential neighborhood and “inconsistent with the City’s urban village strategy.”

Seattle Children’s CEO, Dr. Thomas Hansen, has called on the City Council to reject the examiner’s findings and suggested that should the decision stand the hospital might leave Seattle.

“We plan to immediately appeal the recommendation to the City Council,” said Hansen in a statement released by Seattle Children’s in response to the examiners report.

“If we are unable to obtain a favorable decision on our Master Plan in a timely manner we will need to consider other options that would be extremely regrettable, including a gradual relocation of our hospital facilities – including our downtown research campus – to a single site outside the city of Seattle.”

In its editorial the Seattle Times argues that the urban village standard, which was created for commercial districts, does not apply to a hospital.

Moreover, Seattle Children’s has “bent over backwards” to meet the neighborhood’s concerns, the paper says.

“The City Council should reverse the hearing examiner’s narrow-minded decision,” the editorial concludes.

To learn more:

• Read the Seattle Times editorial: Let Children’s Grow.
• Read the hearing examiner’s full report.
• Visit Seattle Children’s Master Plan Web page.
• Visit the Laurelhurst Community Club’s Web site.

The plight of primary care

Seattle Times reporter Marnette Federis writes about the shortage of primary care providers in Washington state and nationwide.

Federis writes’

Experts say that in a well-functioning health-care system, about half of all doctors would be internists, family doctors or pediatricians, who together would comprise the category of primary-care physicians. But in the United States, only about 30 percent fall into that category (about 35 percent in Washington), and the rate of medical students going into it is far lower still — less than 10 percent nationwide.

To learn more:

• Read Federis’ article: Primary Care in Need of First Aid

Everett highlighted in New York Times op-ed on health care quality

Representatives from health-care organizations in 10 regions where Medicare costs were low or markedly declining and where medical care quality are above average went to Washington, D.C. recently to describe how they have controlled costs while still providing high-quality care.

The experiences of these healthcare providers show that it is possible for the U.S. to lower its healthcare spending without lowering quality, write four health-quality experts, Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick, Elliort Fisher and Mark McCLellan in a New York Times op-ed piece.

If the rest of America could achieve the performances of regions like these, our health care cost crisis would be over. Their quality scores are well above average. Yet they spend more than $1,500 (16 percent) less per Medicare patient than the national average and have a slower real annual growth rate (3 percent versus 3.5 percent nationwide).

Everett was cited for being able to control costs and improve quality even though the region’s doctors work on the traditional basis of fee-for-service, a payment system that in many areas has been linked to higher costs and unnecessary care.

The op-ed authors write:

Other regions, including Richmond and Everett, look more like most American communities, with several medical groups whose physicians are paid on a traditional fee-for-service basis. But they, too, have found ways to protect patients against the damaging incentives of a system that encourages fragmentation of care and the pursuit of revenues over patient needs.

To learn more:

• Read: Ten Steps to Better Health Care.

Tags: Doctors, Everett, Health Insurance, Health Policy, Health-care Reform, Hospitals, Insurance, Nurses, Primary-care, Quality Improvement, Seattle Children's

Category: Doctors, Health-care Policy, Healthcare Reform, Medicare, Nurses, Seattle Children's