𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝙁𝘼𝙎𝙏. Here is a finding that should be watched. Actually, there are two important things happening in this article. First, we are told that staff “doctors are disappearing from emergency rooms at hospitals,” being replaced by practitioners provided by contract staffing organizations, with nurse practitioners and physician assistants being substituted for MDs in the institutions’ efforts to cut costs. This is something that is worth noting in and of itself.
But even more surprising is that we are also informed that in a study of 1.1 Million ER visits in the VHA system, care that was delivered by a “midlevel practitioner” rather than an MD actually resulted in a 7% increase in the cost of care and a 20% increase in readmission for a preventable cause within 30 days.
We need to keep an eye on both of these trends! Take a look at: https://bit.ly/3ZsEKVZ
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