Emory’s Chief Quality Officer William Bornstein, MD, PhD, says there are many issues that need to be tackled in order to achieve meaningful health care reform. He points out that one of the most fundamental questions that must be addressed is who decides about a treatment or diagnostic test that may be a little bit better than an alternative option but is much more expensive? If the patient has no “skin in the game,” he will almost certainly want the better/more expensive option.

William Bornstein, MD, PhD

The doctor has taken an oath to act in the best interests of the patient and this obligation takes precedence over any charge that society would like to impose to cast the Ray Ban Baratas physician in a fiduciary role for the national healthcare budget, says Bornstein, who also serves as chief medical officer for Emory Hospitals. And, the payer’s role is obviously conflicted, he says. If the patient does have skin in the that decision, Bornstein asks, are we prepared as a society to explicitly endorse the notion that “better” care that exceeds a certain cost threshold will only be available to those who can afford the additional cost?

There has been much talk about better care and preventative care being less expensive, but there are little data that support this as being a universal truth. Health care information ray ban outlet technology will also not solve this problem, he says. At some point in the near future, we need to have a national conversation about this challenge. In the past attempts to have such conversations have raised the specter of “rationing,” However, the time has come to confront the truth that our resources are finite and we need to allocate them wisely.

Bornstein is a recognized leader in quality, safety and the use of information technology in improving healthcare delivery. He has serves on national committees and advisory bodies in these areas including the University HealthSystem Consortium Clinical Evaluative Sciences Council Steering Committee, which he now chairs. He serves on the Professional and Technical Advisory Committee for the hospital accreditation process of The Joint Commission as vice-chair, and on the Information Architecture Steering Committee of the University HealthSystem Consortium staff leadership group of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Evidence Based Medicine.

Listen to podcasts with Bornstein on quality.