. . . I propose the creation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of a Center for Healthcare System Performance. The goals of this center would be to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of healthcare delivery. Quality would be measured based on the expected deliverables of our healthcare system, assuring: 1) patient autonomy, access, dignity, and convenience; 2) measurable, maximally beneficial treatment outcomes with minimal risk; and 3) a rational and efficient process of introducing new treatments.
Intrinsic to the development of new therapies is the recognition that higher levels of risk and uncertainty are acceptable for treatments for problems for which present solutions are poor. Conversely, new treatments for which standard therapies are highly effective should require rigorous documentation of safety.
The Center would coordinate activities of the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and Healthcare Finance Administration to ensure their synergistic approach to maximizing the quality of American healthcare delivery. We should set the expectation to continue to lead the world with measurable achievement of goals analogous to our efforts in spaceflight and environmental preservation.
Products and services that prolong and enhance life have obvious fundamental appeal. Instead of a timid, primum non nocere approach to our imperfect healthcare system, let us systematically improve its performance. Carpe diem.
—Dr. Eric Rose
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
New York, New York
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_doctors.htmlThank you Dr. Rose, you are one of the good ones. He wrote this before Obamacare was put on the table, but I believe that his ideals are part of what we might hope for with centralized services. And one of the biggest reasons the RW is against Obamacare? It will drastically cut down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud!
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