
The nation’s public hospital system is sicker than it looks. There are practical, affordable ways to make it better — but not if governments go on doing the same things.
Public hospitals all over the country are overcrowded, inefficient, bad for staff and worse for patients. They badly need more space, more staff. But why, when so much money is being spent, are we in this mess?
In short, we’re not building enough — and what we are building is too expensive, too wasteful and poorly aligned with actual patient needs. State governments are trying to control costs — and to make the figures look better than they are — by selectively treating cheaper same-day cases while neglecting those who need to stay for longer in hospital. Average same-day cases cost less than one-tenth of overnighters. Over a decade, the number of overnight patients rose by 10% nationally but same-day numbers went up by 50%.
Public hospitals are cherry-picking patients because of cost.
Building costs are scandalously high. In today’s dollars, state governments have spent almost $4 million per bed when they’re building a general hospital. The private sector can get it done for under a million.
And far too many patients are being kept in expensive acute beds because much cheaper step-down convalescent and rehabilitation facilities haven’t been built — or even conceived.
There are many ways of reducing costs and improving care at the same time. But governments aren’t even considering those.
Read the full article in The Policy Post.
Republished from The Policy Post, October 25, 2024