Private-sector hospitals, clinics, and insurers are bloated, bureaucratic nightmares compared to efficiently run Veterans Health Administration facilities that put care over profits, a new study reveals. The study, by researchers at Hunter College of the City University of New York, Harvard Medical School, the Veterans Health Administration, and the University of Washington, points fingers at profit-driven private facilities and insurers, where a whopping 30% of staff are stuck in the tangled web of paperwork, while the VHA shines with a lean 22.5% administrative staff.
Bringing Value-Based Care to Rural and Underserved Communities
More than one million Americans live in a medically underserved community, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. About 15 percent of the country lives in a rural area. Patients in underserved and rural areas inherently face greater challenges in seeking and receiving medical care. When they do, these patients tend to be sicker and face social challenges such as having a harder time getting to and from appointments.
The study evaluated recent trends in primary care physicians’ (PCPs) electronic health record (EHR) workload. Prior to and early in the COVID-19 pandemic, PCPs spent more time in the EHR and received more messages than physicians in other specialties, but it is unclear if the pandemic further accelerated the growth of PCPs’ EHR workload.
The scale of change that AI could bring to health care not only impacts patients but also the millions of people the system employs — who will ultimately shape how widely it's adopted. Even though AI optimists don't envision the technology fundamentally remaking the U.S. health care system anytime soon, there's still widespread agreement that it has the potential to vastly improve the quality of care and trim costly waste.
Proven healthcare technologies can help improve patient care and boost staff confidence, but in many rural areas, one major impediment remains: lack of high-speed internet. For years, administrator Kyle Smith thought about expanding the use of telehealth and other tech tools at his 125-bed nursing home in Decatur County, TN. Available services could help the facility, about 100 miles west of Nashville, link up with outside clinicians in case a patient’s condition changed unexpectedly, he said.
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