Health Reform and Academic Medical Centers
Dr. Herb Pardes, the president and chief executive officer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (and a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council), spoke yesterday at the National Press Club and made a number of interesting and valuable points about health reform, the value and future of academic medical centers, and the ability of the healthcare system to provide access to care to a larger insured population. Here are some key excerpts from his speech:
On physician shortages and access to care:
“The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025. Since it takes up to ten years to train a new doctor, we are already behind. We need at least 6,000 to 8,000 new physicians annually on top of the 16,000 that are currently produced each year…..We need measures to increase the healthcare workforce. The caps on residencies should be repealed. We should expand the scope of practice for nurses, physician assistants, and other healthcare providers. Doctors must be trained in quality, safety, reducing cost, and health information technology.”
On efforts to enhance healthcare quality and the challenge faced by hospitals with economically-challenged patient populations:
“Measuring quality correctly is complex. Many factors are involved, including the nature of the patients – how sick they are, they quality and quantity of previous care, underlying conditions such as poverty and lack of care – and other complicating characteristics. These are circumstances facing academic medical centers as a consequence of treating the sickest, most complex cases, as well as the poorest and most vulnerable patients.”
On the ability of academic medical centers lead the charge on quality and cost control:
“Because academic medical centers treat a large portion of (patients in poverty and with multiple medical conditions), they are well situated to create innovative new care models that will improve quality and reduce cost. The partnerships inherent in the academic medical center structure – hospitals, medical schools, physicians, community clinical networks, schools of public health, and others – provide the creative and experiential resources to develop and implement models of care based on quality metrics and cost controls.”
