The Healthcare Entrepreneur Blog

There is a downside to specialization of labor in medical care

by Tannus Quatre PT, MBA | June 5th, 2009 | 1 response

Specialization of labor helps to improve quality, efficiency, and profitability.  In health care however, there is a downside – it can come at the cost of the quality of the continuum of care that patients need and deserve.

This is one of the worst examples of patient abandonment I can imagine. Surgeons are paid a bundled fee to provide surgical care for a 90 day period.  I’m pretty sure CMS would like to hear about this surgeon’s policy of not providing their agreed upon service contract with the federal government. 

See more from A Happy Hospitalist: Is it OK For A Surgeon To Stop Seeing Their Hospitalized Patient?

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  • http://www.therextras.com Barbara Boucher, PT, PhD

    Bundling is part of the downside for best practice care and profitability. Why should every medical service have to enter through the portal of the physician? Exercise – a well-establish evidence-based healthcare treatment is a specialty owned by therapists. Physicians cannot prescribe dosage for this valuable treatment adequately themselves (as they do for pharmaceuticals).