Robbin Dick, MD

Measuring the value of emergency department care

Physician

August 1, 2014

Emergency department directors measure value in their departments with a number of metrics that are tracked religiously: door-to-provider times, ambulance drop-off times, left without being seen rates, length of stay for discharged patients, diversion hours, and 72-hour returns all come to mind.

These metrics clearly measure the performance of the emergency department, what to they do, if anything, to measure the value of care being provided? These metrics are often …

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Is your hospital leader committed to patient-centered care?

Robbin Dick, MD

Policy

July 11, 2013

Nearly every hospital leader in America will tell you their hospital is all about patient-centered care. Of course, we know this isn’t true in many cases, especially when it comes to hospital capacity management. Though many institutions will deny to its last dying breath that they have any priorities that supercede patient care, nearly all do.

They usually go like this: first priority is high margin surgical cases; second priority is …

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What is observation care? Clearing up common misperceptions

Robbin Dick, MD

Policy

February 4, 2013

To treat observation care as simply a loophole that allows hospitals to avoid the Medicare penalties from readmissions — as Brad Wright, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Iowa did earlier this month — is to take a short-sighted approach to a complex health issue.

Observation care in fact aims to address several of healthcare’s thorniest challenges head on. In the process, …

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