I have been doing locum tenens work as a hospitalist for nearly two years. One of my reasons for doing this is that the practice of medicine in the US is very interesting, and by working in very different places I get to see how things work and don't work, and make up cool theories. I have time to read and listen to people and have become curious about several true things which don’t seem to fit together. Hospitals are paid an absurd amount of money to take care of patients. Small hospitals can barely survive financially. Small hospitals, rural ones with 25 beds or fewer (critical access hospitals) are paid more generously by Medicare than large hospitals. Hospitals that employ physicians subsidize them above the money they bring in as professional fees, to the tune of about $100,000 per year per physician. Hospitalists and hospitalist programs are expensive, in the range of 1-2 million dollars per year for a 25 bed hospital. Hospitals are willing, even happy, to start...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.