Report proposes new "vital signs" to measure the health of the nation

Doctors use vital signs as a relatively simple way to detect a disease or monitor the health of a person. The keys include blood pressure, body temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate.  

A report from the newly appointed National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) proposes to use 15 "vital signs" to track how health care in the United States at the height:

  *     Life spans
  *     well be
  *     Overweight and obesity
  *     addictive behaviors
  *     unwanted pregnancies
  *     healthy communities
  *     prevention services
  *     access to care
  *     Patient Safety
  *     care based on evidence
  *     care that matches the patient's goals
  *     Load personal expenses
  *     weight of the expenditure of the population
  *     individual commitment
  *     community involvement.

Why to create such a list? the costs of health care in the US They are the highest in the world, but people in many countries that spend less on health services are healthier overall and have better health outcomes. To improve the performance of health care, we need to measure how you are doing in a logical and sustainable manner. But this does not happen today.

Many organizations try to measure quality, but the use of a large number of measures. For example, the quality of the National Forum, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving health care, more than 600 of these types of measures in their toolbox. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has more than 1,700. The new report from the National Academy of Medicine, called Vital Signs, estimated individual health systems employ an average of 50 to 100 people full time to measure performance, with costs ranging from $ 3.5 million to $ 12 organization per year. Factor in the number of health systems across the country, and that adds to real money.

"If we want to know how effective and efficient health are our spending to improve health and reduce costs, we must measure the most important health outcomes to guide our decisions and assess the impact," said chairman of the board David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund in New York, said in a statement.

15 proposed measures vital signs panel are not intended to be used alone. Instead, they represent "the most powerful measures that have the greatest potential to positively influence the health and well-being of Americans," said Blumenthal. They pretend to be a reference basis points together to assess the most important aspects of health care and health.

Some of the 15 vital signs such as life expectancy, welfare, overweight and obesity, and addictive behavior, measure aspects of the health of the individual. Others, such as access to care, patient safety and care based on evidence, the assessment of the health system. Two types are needed to measure the health of the nation and the quality of our health care.

These vital signs will answer questions about what we do well and where we need to improve. The repetition of these measures over time will provide essential information on the history of the health of our nation and the course corrections necessary to improve it. Making these changes should improve our vital signs and diminish the monumental amount of money we spend on health care.

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