The Quality Cure: How Focusing on Health Care Quality Can Save Your Life and Lower Spending Too (Volume 9) (Wildavsky Forum Series)

I would only hope that our elected officials would taake the time to read books like this one. Our Health care system is ne that was created from serendipity and greed. We have only been made to focus on patient outcomes as a result of fear of litigation and reputation in too many cases. We should make health care act as a real business and get the electied officials out of medicine and allow consumers more say so. This is good for a basic discussion starter, but the problem is much to complex for the simple answers it gives. I would really recommend this for the real historians out there. Health care is too important to be used as a political football, we need leadership and thoughtfulness.

The Quality Cure tells some of the classic stories of quality improvement. The ideas for improvement are well known in health management circles, but told well here for a popular audience. Nothing earth shattering revelations, but lots of great details.

This is a great book by a health care economist who was involved in drafting the ACA. He has a series of episodes, founded in health care delivery examples, of what works and what doesn't to try to reduce costs. I didn't *always* agree with him, but having read the chapter, I believed I understood the issue much better than when I started to read.

I think this is a great book to read but it is not as good as his other book, Strong Medicine. A lot of this book goes beyond economics and Cutler' real expertise to discuss implementing IT reform at hospitals and other such issues that are treated as if they are simpler than they really are.

I encourage any health professional to read this!

Cutler's first chapter identifies cost, access, and quality as 'the three horsemen of the (American healthcare) apocalypse.' What a horrible depiction of our healing industry, yet very apt. Fortunately, they can all be simultaneously addressed - by focusing on quality.The Toyota Production System (TPS) focuses on maximizing quality - through prevention, and immediate detection and correction of defects. Side benefits include faster response times, lower inventories, and improved productivity. NO tradeoffs!The TPS has revolutionized manufacturing. Healthcare, however, has been late to adopt such thinking. The 'good news' is that now we have David Cutler's 'The Quality Cure.'A startling finding - unnecessary care adds up to nearly $200 billion/year. Examples provided include spine surgeries, induction of preterm birth, and stenting. And then there's lots of excess imaging - not only a waste of money, but a potential cause of cancer.Another mind-boggler - central line infections cause numerous deaths, there are protocols that essentially eliminate the problem, and we often don't follow those protocols. Overall, the death rate from medical errors is the equivalent of a medium-sized jumbo jet crashing daily.Fast, specific information feedback is essential to quality improvement. Unfortunately, there is little of that In healthcare.Payment reform is an essential precursor to quality improvement in healthcare. We need to stop paying on a piecework basis, regardless of quality, and move to paying fixed amounts (eg. placing doctors onto a salary basis), without making the mistake of earlier HMOs. (Then they dictated what was allowed and not allowed. Not the case now with the ACA global payment model.)Two more key points - patients have a lot to contribute to care improvement. A good start would be exercise, diet, and smoking cessation. And second, we haven't yet begun to see the benefits of electronic medical records - vast improvements in treatment are likely to result from mining healthcare databases.

I am a Master's degree student in healthcare administration, and this book was recommended as one of the "good reads" by my instructor. David Cutler made a great impression on me both as a writer and as a professional. His knowledge is undeniable, and he is able to explain the basics of the US health care, its issues and benefits in a simple language. The book addresses the actual topics such as Affordable Care Act, reasons why it was implemented, while keeping it short and simple. If you have never read anything on healthcare, you probably would be just fine reading this book. It requires literally no prior knowledge and explains everything very well. Finally, if you have read other books about our healthcare, you will find this one very refreshing as it is realistic, yet not too depressing as many others.

David Cutler has observed more about the health care system than most people in the world, and in this book he offers a sensible framework and prescriptions to help us deliver the kind of care we would want at a price we would want to pay. This is no ideological screed: It is a thoughtful and interesting analysis that transcends political boundaries. We would be a lot better off if we accomplished even 10% of what he suggests. A must-read for health professionals but also for citizens who want to have a sense that things can work better if we set our minds to it.

Excellent book. It seems like decreasing costs whilst improving quality of patient care is possible - at least in the North America!