Nth's Healthcare Problem

Background: The conference revolved around the discussion of the large-scale and local factors affecting academic medical center’s (AMC’s). It began by discussing where the United States healthcare system ranks in comparison to other countries in several categories. The U.S. currently ranks 37th overall, 34th in infant mortality, last in quality of care, 24th in disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE), and 1st in per capita healthcare expenditures. The various healthcare systems utilized in other countries and the U.S. includes four systems, which include the out of pocket model, Bismarck model, Beveridge model, and national health insurance model; the U.S. utilizes all of these systems. The type of healthcare system a U.S. citizen uses

In order to begin formulating a solution, it is easiest to think from the “micro” level and work towards the “macro” level. Firstly, one needs to assess the sources of revenue and cost for AMC’s. AMC’s acquire 37 percent of their income from clinical revenue, 20 percent from federal funding, 16 percent from medical programs, and only four percent from tuition and fees. While AMC’s cost comes from many sources, a major contributor is full-time faculty positions, which has increased by 1500 percent since 1960. Given this information, it is apparent that increasing tuition cost would add little benefit, while only burdening medical student’s unnecessarily. Other solutions include increasing clinical revenue, decreasing full-time faculty, and the like; however, these solutions too would be futile. A more formidable and sustainable solution might include merging hospitals into a conglomerate, but this too has its pitfalls, such as the ability to charge higher prices due to reduced competition.

Lessons Learnt: AMC’s and hospitals need to seriously re-evaluate their practices to not only create affordable healthcare, but to keep from going out of business. This means constructively evaluating healthcare in all aspects and on all levels. Although it is hard to find what to do, it is easy to identify what not to do, such as raising tuition rates; efforts like these simply treat the symptoms, not the