- In this report
- Overview
- Geography and health care
- By the numbers
- Spending by state
- Why the differences?
- In defense of "more"
- Why primary care matters
- Needed changes
- Get better care, no matter where
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July 2008
Why primary care matters
"We see huge regional differences in health-care quality," says IBM's Grundy, whose department buys health insurance for 386,000
employees around the world. "There's almost an inverse relationship between cost and quality, with the better quality in the
states with a high concentration of primary-care providers," he says.
Primary-care doctors are trained to manage the "whole person," which can help keep seriously ill people doing well and out of the hospital.
Seeing too many specialists produces "fragmentation," says Donald M. Berwick, M.D., president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Mass. "If you have 18 doctors, you'll have more coordination problems than if you have three."
Primary-care doctors are trained to manage the "whole person," which can help keep seriously ill people doing well and out of the hospital.
Seeing too many specialists produces "fragmentation," says Donald M. Berwick, M.D., president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Mass. "If you have 18 doctors, you'll have more coordination problems than if you have three."
