The Health Care Blog

Who should tell your MD what to do?

By PAUL LEVY In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Norbert Gleicher suggests that expert panels won't improve health care because the the quality of the research on which they would base their physician practice guidelines is not reliable. Instead, he...
October 21, 2009 in Paul Levy | Permalink | Comments (7)

Groupon, Livingsocial, and digital norms

By PAUL LEVY Regular readers may have noticed that I am a bit of a social media junkie -- this blog, Facebook, Twitter -- but I am also intrigued by social media sites that are set up only for commercial...
September 13, 2009 in Paul Levy, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (1)

Costs Are Not The Same As Rates

By PAUL LEVY Many "old" media outlets do not identify the authors of their editorials. Thus, when an opinion is offered, you have no way of knowing who wrote it or what their qualifications are. Your only recourse when there...
July 13, 2009 in Costs, Paul Levy, Policy/Politics, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (13)

A new year's resolution for greater hospital transparency

By Paul Levy Just thinking, along the lines of a New Year's resolution. What if all of the hospitals in the Boston metropolitan area -- academic medical centers and community hospitals -- decided as a group to eliminate certain kinds...
January 3, 2009 in Hospitals, Patient Safety, Paul Levy, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (4)

Running a hospital: The demands for robotic surgery

By Paul Levy Many months ago, I wrote about the da Vinci Robot Surgical System and expressed doubts about whether there was evidence to support the clinical efficacy of this equipment, as opposed to the marketing efficacy of the company...
November 24, 2008 in Hospitals, Medical Devices, Paul Levy | Permalink | Comments (13)

Transparency Works!!! (And better than you can imagine)

By PAUL LEVY I just saw clear evidence of the importance of transparency with regard to the reporting of important adverse events and medical errors. Bear with me through the details, but I will not keep you in suspense regarding...
November 14, 2008 in Hospitals, Paul Levy | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEIU's questionable election strategy

By Paul Levy Several months ago, I mentioned the large sum of money being spent by SEIU on political races throughout the country. Now, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal questions the legality of the manner the SEIU is...
July 30, 2008 in Election 08, Marketplace, Paul Levy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

The math is wrong

By Paul Levy I have great respect for Jim Stergios and the Pioneer Institute he heads. The Institute has been an important force in Massachusetts public policy debates for many years. But I think Jim has the wrong policy prescription...
July 24, 2008 in Economics, Paul Levy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Should a surgeon be punished for wrong-site surgery?

By Paul Levy During these couple of weeks following our wrong-side surgery, a number of people have asked me if we intend to punish the surgeon in charge of the case, as well as other people in the operating room,...
July 20, 2008 in Hospitals, Patient Safety, Paul Levy, Quality | Permalink | Comments (4)

A message you hope to never send

By Paul Levy First, an email sent out on Thursday morning. My commentary follows. Dear BIDMC Community, This week at BIDMC, a patient was harmed when something happened that never should happen: A procedure was performed on the wrong body...
July 7, 2008 in Hospitals, Patient Safety, Paul Levy, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (6)

Let's talk about tax exemptions

By Paul Levy An excellent article by Stephanie Strom in Monday's New York Times covers what appears to be a growing controversy about the degree to which nonprofit organizations should or should not be permitted to be tax exempt under...
May 28, 2008 in Hospitals, Paul Levy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)