Medical Malpractice
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March 17th, 2006

"New Study Reveals Most Americans Receiving Poor Healthcare"

A new study of almost 7,000 patients in 12 metropolitan areas found that all Americans, regardless of race, gender, or income, are at risk for getting substandard health care.

While there is a slight difference of care received between groups, most of the concern lies in the general treatment gap revealed in the study.

“There’s no question that disparities exist, but the big variations are not between groups, but between what people are getting and what people should be getting,” study author Dr. Steven M. Asch, of Rand Health said.

According to the findings reported in this month’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the participants in the study received 54.9 percent of the care medical professionals recommended for their condition between 1996 and 2000.

“Everyone, men and women, rich and poor, insured and uninsured, is at risk. No matter who you are, it’s almost a flip of the coin as to whether you get the care that experts want for you,” Asch said.

The Rand study is the third health-care quality study in the United States. The previous research found that Americans are getting only 50 percent of the recommended care from their physicians.

However, the study only looked at the health care received during the doctors visit and failed to evaluate the occurring events after the patients left the office such as access to medication, etc., which may skew the figures.

According to experts, the increase in the amount of information physicians must know to adequately treat patients as well as heightened complications of certain conditions may be the reason why the numbers in the study are so low. “There’s been an explosion of medical knowledge, and of the possibilities of what can be done for you over the past five to 10 years,” Elizabeth McGlynn, senior author of the study and associate director of Rand Health said.

Asch said the answer to this explosion lies in technology, which is not used enough in health care. “The system is not set up; information technology can make a difference,” Asch said. “Another potential fix is transparency and feedback. Physicians and patients have little idea how often they are succeeding or failing because such information is pretty hard to get.”

“We wouldn’t tolerate this in almost any other sector of society,” Asch said. “It’s a complicated thing to give medical care, and to do it right you need assistance.”