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October 19, 2011

Peering into the Future of Healthcare: Forewarned Is Forearmed


3 Comments to “Peering into the Future of Healthcare: Forewarned Is Forearmed”

  1. Bob Gutman said,

    October 20, 2011 @ 6:03 am

    Allen, your posts represent an heroic effort to try to harmonize the wish that we can continue along familiar paths and yet transit to a more financially rational system that encompasses fairness to all. This is a daunting task! and reminds me of the quote from E.B. White: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” As a mere example, you comment on the inevitable shit “from compassion to dispassion” but limit the discussion to the relatively easy issue of discussing end of life with rational people who might intelligently decide to forego dialysis as a way to live and die (which would save money as well as offering real compassion. This omits the far more common agony of “providing care” for people who demand it, but refuse to participate, thus both increasing their degree of illness without dying and the cost to society. I would like to see you struggle with this issue on the blog as all of us have on the ground.

  2. Allen Nissenson said,

    October 20, 2011 @ 8:38 am

    As you know coming from a tertiary care facility the patient you describe was quite common. Struggle is an understatement. I will give continue to think about this and will try to address in more detail in a future blog.

  3. Sharon Rynn said,

    October 25, 2011 @ 1:06 pm

    Very interesting and I feel the larger nephrology groups are doing a pretty good job on trying to stay on top of these upcoming changes but pity those individual and small practices that may have their heads in the sand. Ignorance is not bliss.


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