Healthcare IT won't save healthcare industry, and other lettters

In response to the recent guest commentary “ICD-10 won't help on cost control”, the elephant in the room is much larger than the author suggests.

ICD-9 currently fails to provide accurate code diagnostic options for the patients I see in a medical practice. ICD-10 with its 69,000 codes still fails to provide options for accurate diagnosis. Thus, almost all patients are assigned both an incorrect and incomplete diagnosis of their medical condition.

In the world of medicine, new complexities, new diagnoses and new procedures are reported on a daily basis. Outcome measures are an attempt to relate the treatment to the disease, but in reality are seldom validated and almost never include all the variables that can alter outcomes. Because of the constantly changing understanding of disease, coding systems and their codes are years behind reality. Imprecise, inadequate codes give a completely inaccurate assessment of the actual activity and of the potential value (worth) of that activity.

The successful “healthcare” business is then defined by its focus on gaming a new coding system, not on defining either the patients' actual disease or utilizing a valid outcome measure. To paraphrase the late Dr. Arnold Relman's eloquently written essay on the conflict of business and medicine: The goals of medicine are so different from that of ordinary business that they are inherently at odds, and the continued intrusion of market forces will not only bankrupt the healthcare system but undermine the ethical foundations and moral precepts that define medical professionalism.

Dr. Robert Teitge

Regarding the recent story “CDC introduces new Ebola risk and response levels for travelers”, those of us in the healthcare profession really need to be accountable for our actions. About the quarantines, my goodness, what is 21 days in a lifetime?

I can't believe that with access to Skype, e-mail, texting, tweeting, etc.—allowing us to stay in touch with the world around us—that one won't consider the health of others around them and not have an issue with remaining alone for just 21 days. What kind of profession are we if we are going to fight against this when we come back from these countries helping to care for these very sick people? I just do not understand the pushback.

Regarding the article “Groups decry mandatory quarantine for Ebola aid workers”, just about every hospital in the U.S. will cover the pay/salaries of their employees if they are retained for jury duty, even for selection to a grand-jury panel, which often requires a full month away from work and often sequestered.

Why not do the same for employees who volunteer to work for Doctors Without Borders and similar organizations? I bet the resistance and the claims of “inhumane treatment” upon their return would go away if they knew in advance they would have a three-week paid vacation awaiting them where they get free room and board, meals, and access to the Internet and cable television. If these states offered or were required to pick up the tab, I see no issue with that either.