Baltimore may be the home to some of the country's finest hospitals, but the rate at which they are providing routine medical care that could (and should) be treated in a doctor's office or clinic shows "a fundamental failure" of the city's health system. That blunt assessment, in the Baltimore Sun, comes from the city's health commissioner himself, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein.
Data from a RAND Corp. study shows Baltimore residents are being hospitalized or treated in emergency rooms for conditions like asthma and high blood pressure at rates that are roughly twice those in surrounding counties and statewide. Nearby Washington, D.C., which has a similar proportion of uninsured, low-income residents, has lower rates. (Baltimore: 42 avoidable hospitalizations per 1000 residents, Washington 28 per 1000)
Sharfstein says the problem stems from clinics that are stretched to capacity and a shortage of primary care doctors who serve poor people.
Before we give this blog (and our bloggers) a holiday break and wish our readers all the best for the New Year, we wanted to take a moment to look back at 2008 and look ahead, with some optimism, to 2009. Amid our challenges are opportunities, and amid those opportunities are the best chance in many years to fix our health care system so that it is both more equitable and more sustainable.
We've told you about the health care house parties President-elect Obama
m a cooperative venture next year.
I want to spend a moment highlighting news that got surprisingly little attention in my favorite health policy media earlier this month. Dr.
Former Minnesota Republican Sen. David Durenberger widely emails periodic musings and commentaries which give rather frank and illuminating glimpses inside the heart and mind of a somewhat disillusioned moderate.
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