Tag: america
Can you imagine a general practice without a waiting room? What would a primary care facility look like if it had over 80 staff? How would you organise to serve 25,000 or even 60,000 patients? To see the answers you need travel no further than Virginia Mason in Seattle. The most revolutionary of their primary […]
Australia spends just 6% of the total Medicare pool on primary care. We also know that 4% of our population use 40% of Medicare services. So what would happen if we doubled the allocation of funding to primary care? Would it drive down the overall cost of supporting these high intensity users? America is home […]
America and Australia share some common geographical features. We both occupy massive land areas. Our populations are largely concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Our specialty physician capacity is largely centred around teaching hospitals in the largest cities. Our funders and policy makers live in some of the most affluent and educated parts of the country. […]
Australia made a bold move some weeks ago in linking family payments to children’s immunisation status. The lack of political rhetoric would indicate policy is finally aligned with some immutable and common goals. People in every country I have visited have said they would welcome the same move. So what next? In New Zealand, Canada […]
Every clinical encounter begins with the taking of a patient history. But what sort of patient history do we use? American carers are increasingly acknowledging the needs of the whole patient in planning their care. A number of the federally qualified health centres I have visited begin their patient interaction with the usual questions, weights […]
The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obama Care, has injected huge amounts of funding into the healthcare system for the poor. Organisations as divergent as Denver Health, a government run group and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC), a strictly private affair, have found common ground and greater capacity in their responses to […]
Around the world we all struggle with primary care’s place in the health and business world. In comparison to both spheres, primary care is often referred to as a “cottage industry”. The widely distributed ownership, poor management capability and under investment in systems means that primary care is a sitting duck for any government, insurer […]
