Books – One Injury, 10 Countries – A Journey in Health Care – Review – NYTimes.com
I think this book,The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
The first paragraph of the New York Times review sure resonated with me:
With all due respect to the seminar room, the boardroom, the hearing room and the Oval Office, a better vantage point than any of them for evaluating and redesigning our health care system is the hospital room (window bed, please).
We'll see if the book delivers on that promise — that we can redesign and improve care at the front lines of delivery, the “gemba,” if you will. Or, is the book just a rehashing of everything that people say is wrong with American health care?
The premise of the book is that the author has a shoulder problem, so he presents his condition and pain to physicians in ten different countries. The variation and lack of standardized work in the proposed countermeasures sounds fascinating. A lot of that variation seems driven by the incentives in each country's system.
Books I'm currently reading and need/want to finish soon. I'm enjoying them both very much.
Have you read any of these?
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Mark,
You can also hear & download two very good interviews with the author, T.R. Reid, on NPR. He's very funny on air.
Fresh Air: http://is.gd/3mlXd
Forum: http://is.gd/3mm2g
Wow! What an interesting concept to evaluate the same complaint in 10 different countries. I agree with you Mark, that sounds global and interesting.
One of Ried's associates and admirers, Dr. Kim was recently interviewed on Bill Moyers, where he discusses the need for greater efficiency in healthcare delivery.
It video and transcript is linked on my blog (along with my comments) at http://www.sinofactory.net/blog/2009/09/lean-can-save-lives/