Flatlined: Resuscitating American Medicine - Hardcover

Clifton M.D., Guy L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813544289 ISBN 13: 9780813544281

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Flatlined lifts the veil of secrecy on twenty-first century health care and delves into the realities of good people caught in a bad medical system. Dr. Guy L. Clifton, a practitioner as well as a policy advocate, reveals first-hand accounts of needless tragedy, such as the young man who died after a car wreck for lack of a bed in a qualified hospital and the surgeon who was dejected by the scarcity of resources needed to enable him to perform heart surgery on an uninsured man.

Arguing that a lack of coordinated care and quality medical practice benchmarks result in high levels of redundancy and ineffectiveness, Clifton proposes that the key to reducing health care costs, improving quality, and financially protecting the uninsured, is to reduce wastefulness, and offers a solution for achieving success.

Flatlined sounds the warning call: By 2018 Medicare and Medicaid will consume about one-third of the federal budget. American businesses now pay three times as much of their payroll for health care as global competitors, expected to worsen as health care grows at twice the rate of the U.S. economy. Based on his years of experience in policy and medicine, Clifton offers an attainable solution through the development of an American Medical Quality System.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

America’s failing health care system has been a hot button issue for decades, but now matters are coming to a head. The country’s emergency rooms are over-burdened, endangering everyone. Americans of all demographics are having difficulty getting insured and staying insured. American businesses spend far more than their global competitors on health care. Medicare threatens to bankrupt the federal government or drive tax rates to unsustainable levels within a decade. Without immediately beginning reform, there will be an unprecedented health care crisis in the near future.

In Flatlined, Guy L. Clifton examines the causes and consequences of the breakdown of American health care, the plight of millions of uninsured families, and the vicious cycle of high prices and low-quality treatment. Filled with first-hand accounts, the book shows how the fee-for-service method of paying doctors and hospitals, and the lack of standards of medical practice result in enough medical waste to cover the uninsured seven times. Clifton presents evidence that reducing the waste from U. S. health care would improve quality and reduce cost without cutting prices. He proposes a National Medical Quality System (NMQS), an independent entity based on the stature and organization of the Federal Reserve System, dedicated to reducing waste and improving the quality of U. S. medicine. The NMQS would require the medical industry to reform from within, and would also influence the payer-system that now includes Medicare, private, and employer-based insurance. Clifton’s controversial proposal outlines the parameters for the NMQS to make objective recommendations to payers just as the Federal Reserve makes the decisions that guide federal monetary policy. This is a pivotal time for American medicine. Flatlined is essential reading for business leaders, policy makers, medical professionals, and Americans looking for a solution.

About the Author:

Guy L. Clifton, M.D. is a neurosurgeon, clinical investigator, administrator, and health policy advocate. He is the Runnells Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and has been frequently included in Best Doctors of America. A 2006–2007 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, he is now devoting himself full-time to health policy reform.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0813544289
• ISBN 13: 9780813544281
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304