At five Bon Secours Health System hospitals on the East Coast, giving fewer blood transfusions during heart surgeries has had some counterintuitive results: Not only did costs fall, but care improved, officials say.
“People think transfusions are good, but ”¦ the higher rate of transfusions that people get, that’s associated with a longer hospital stay and a higher death rate,” chief medical officer Marlon Priest says.
Bon Secours’ campaign to reduce blood transfusions during heart bypass and valve replacement surgeries is part of a growing national trend to standardize care and rein in differences in how doctors and hospitals practice medicine.
Beancounters.
The story reminds me of the 105 year old man I met who had a scalp laceration that just wouldn’t close up. He was sent between hospital and home about six times over a two week period. He’d go in before noon and in the evening would be sent home. The wound would open up overnight and back he’d go in an ambulance. It wasn’t a life or death issue, but I couldn’t figure out why the hospital kept releasing a centennarian, with a problem that could be solved with good nursing care, home to be taken care of by his 90-something year old wife. I’m not sure what the hospital stay would have added up to, but the trips by ambulance were probably about $300, and each ED evaluation had to be billed at least twice that.
“We have to look at things we’re paying for that have questionable value and try and get rid of those things.”
I’m guessing that, in a value added way, the bleeding problem eventually solved itself and the mulitiple bills for minimal treatment were paid by somebody. Win, win.