Code Blue: How the U.S. Can Save $50 Trillion in 25 Years and Resuscitate the Health Care System

At no time in modern history has the United States faced such limited and costly choices for medical care. Each year, complexity, co-pays, deductibles, and premiums increase—while coverage, options, and timeliness decline. As a multi-trillion-dollar industry, our healthcare system is weighed down by inertia, with government ineptness and large corporate interests often standing in the way of meaningful reform.

Code Blue: How the U.S. Can Save $50 Trillion in 25 Years and Resuscitate Our Health Care System confronts this challenge head-on. Drawing on decades of experience, the author exposes wasteful and self-serving practices by both government and corporations. More importantly, the book outlines a practical path forward: aligning quality of care with cost efficiency to create a leaner system where the best patient care is also the most economical.

This book is written for policymakers, large-scale purchasers of health insurance, federal, state, and local governments—and for every patient everywhere, i.e. all of us.

About the Author

Philip J. O'Donnell, M.D., B.S.E. began his academic career studying electrical engineering and computer science, focusing on processes such as algorithms, discrete mathematics, queuing theory, and system optimization. After completing undergraduate studies, he then completed premedical work, attended medical school, and completed a categorical internship and residency in internal medicine.

Throughout his career, Dr. O’Donnell recognized that the principles of process optimization applied just as powerfully to health care as they did to engineering. As chairman of the Optimal Resource Utilization Committee at a local hospital, he helped reduce patient length of stay and improve outcomes while lowering costs. His lifelong commitment to improving efficiency and quality in medicine naturally culminated in this book—a blueprint for rescuing America’s health care system.