To the Editor:
A key component of a proper health care system is measurement of outcomes and adjustment of health care protocols to assure the best outcomes consistent with current medical knowledge.
For instance, the University of Utah and other leading medical centers have voluntarily adopted procedures to evaluate outcomes of treatment when no specific protocol exists. As a case in point, according to The NY Times Magazine, of November 8, 2009, physicians were using their discretion in how to insert an intravenous (IV) line.
After a study was done in Michigan hospitals that showed that a specific set of steps in IV insertion would reduce deaths from infection to near zero, the University of Utah and other leading institutions put in place a specific protocol for inserting the IV line, a necessary step in many treatments and surgeries.
Countless lives saved, money saved by not performing unnecessary or inappropriate tests, and ultimately, therefore, lower health insurance premiums are the benefits of proper measurement of outcomes and implementation of standardized protocols whenever feasible.
I urge PEF to seek and support legislation at the state and national levels to require hospitals to institute such measurement committees, along the lines of the one at the University of Utah Medical Center.
ROBERT L. FISHER
Delmar
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