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I think it is worth studying. In regulatory based hospitals there are natural profit incentives that are only gated by the law. The hospital has no incentive

by edoo 8y ago

I think it is worth studying. In regulatory based hospitals there are natural profit incentives that are only gated by the law. The hospital has no incentive to go above and beyond the basic legal requirements for sanitation and won't if there is a profit based incentive not to. Free market solutions where the consumer has strong rights usually leads to superior solutions and their result lines up with the hospital adopting free market methods.

Fomite 8y ago
A couple notes: "The basic legal requirements for sanitation and won't if there is a profit based incentive not to." As I mentioned, there is not really just a 'basic legal requirement for sanitation'. There are significant financial penalties in the form of both uncompensated expenses and genuine cuts to reimbursement rates based on outcomes. "Free market solutions where the consumer has strong rights usually leads to superior solutions and their result lines up with the hospital adopting free market methods." This is not necessarily self-evident. For example, for many quality measures, despite their bad press, the VA outperforms private hospitals. Furthermore, many hospitals like the one mentioned in your original post are able to pick and choose their cases, which very frequently leads to lower rates. I think it's worth studying as well, because it's my career. I am however also noting that you're making a couple false assumptions, and even measuring things like "Does Hospital A have more infections than Hospital B" are deceptively challenging if you actually want the correct answer.
- edoo 8y ago
  Good points, and I'm no expert. I do think the VA outperforming private hospitals could be in line with it having different incentives, like fixed pricing and not being run as a profit mill. Different incentives due to a different non-free market structure could explain some of the other problems they have too.

by edoo 8y ago

Fomite 8y ago

A couple notes: "The basic legal requirements for sanitation and won't if there is a profit based incentive not to." As I mentioned, there is not really just a 'basic legal requirement for sanitation'. There are significant financial penalties in the form of both uncompensated expenses and genuine cuts to reimbursement rates based on outcomes. "Free market solutions where the consumer has strong rights usually leads to superior solutions and their result lines up with the hospital adopting free market methods." This is not necessarily self-evident. For example, for many quality measures, despite their bad press, the VA outperforms private hospitals. Furthermore, many hospitals like the one mentioned in your original post are able to pick and choose their cases, which very frequently leads to lower rates. I think it's worth studying as well, because it's my career. I am however also noting that you're making a couple false assumptions, and even measuring things like "Does Hospital A have more infections than Hospital B" are deceptively challenging if you actually want the correct answer.

edoo 8y ago
Good points, and I'm no expert. I do think the VA outperforming private hospitals could be in line with it having different incentives, like fixed pricing and not being run as a profit mill. Different incentives due to a different non-free market structure could explain some of the other problems they have too.