Workplace clinics need to emphasize care coordination, and other letters

Regarding the recent feature “Company doctoring” which focused on healthcare costs, let's not overlook another key component to managing cost: coordination of care with the employee's regular primary-care provider, if the worker has one. Although potentially a touchy issue, coordination and sharing of medical records can lower costs associated with duplication of labs. There's also the significantly higher costs of managing healthcare-related complications and medication duplication that might arise if treatment plans conflict or if key information is unavailable to either practitioner.

Daniel Morgan

Regarding the article “Healthcare safer in some areas, but not overall, NPSF says” one perspective on improving safety is to integrate family members into the care-delivery process. By having a few pairs of extra eyes on the process, errors are less likely, patient-satisfaction scores tend to be higher and readmission rates tend to be lower. I have personally witnessed several bad outcomes avoided when family/caregivers questioned a drug or other intervention that turned out to be an error. Technology can help facilitate the process.

Dr. Tom Giannulli