"more care does not always mean better care."

Below is an excerpt from a report by Maggie Mahar called "Making Choice an Option", it is part of a 10 page pdf file. In the report Mahar does an excellent job of helping us understand that "more care does not always mean better care."


Medicare beneficiaries in high-cost
states are likely to spend twice as many days in the
hospital as patients in low-cost states and are far
more likely to die in an intensive care unit. The
odds are higher that patients in high-spending regions
will see 10 or more specialists during their fi-
nal six months of life. These facts alone aren’t terribly
surprising. But here’s the stunner: Chronically
ill patients who receive the most intensive, aggressive,
and expensive treatments fare no better
than those who receive more conservative care. In
fact, their outcomes are often worse.
In high-cost regions, “patients with the same disease
have higher mortality rates, very likely because
of medical errors associated with increased use of
acute-care hospitals,” Wennberg and colleagues
noted in a 2006 study of patients suffering from
chronic diseases like cancer or congestive heart failure.
As Fisher puts it, “Hospitals can be dangerous
places—especially if you don’t need to be there.”

You can download the rest of the report by clicking the link below

http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=PB&pubid=627