These rural community hospitals are relegated to providing primary care services and very few of the specialty services that are available in centers of medical excellence in metropolitan cities. This situation continues to increase the need for patients to migrate to larger communities in order to obtain the specialized services their healthcare will require. This raises an interesting paradox addressed in the second article focuses on increased consolidation of healthcare services in huge healthcare systems with almost monopolistic power in key healthcare markets. “The latest giant hospital consolidations continue to stir concerns. Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, two large chains are expected to become one of the nation’s largest groups —- with 139 hospitals in 28 states— by the end of the year. And two of Texas’ biggest systems, Baylor Scott & White Health and Memorial Herman Health System, recently announced plans to combine.”
“In the national analysis, a third of the metropolitan areas experienced increases in the cost of hospital stays of at least 25% from 2012 to 2014, from roughly $12,000 to at least $15,000.”2 Thus, these hospital system consolidations are doing exactly the reverse of what was anticipated as they are continuing to accelerate the cost curve rather than bend the curve with additional savings.
When you look at this emerging picture of healthcare from the perspective of the individual from a rural community who needs specialized care, the system is fraught with confusion, anonymity and increasing costs. We at Curus referred to this as the “What do I do now? syndrome”. In order to seek out the highest quality of care, patients are left to their own ingenuity to figure out what are the best options that are most cost-effective and are in network? This is where the doctor-patient relationship is devolving into an impersonal process where the patient is on the conveyor belt of healthcare delivery. Further complicating the decision-making in this scenario is the fact that physicians are becoming part of the “corporate practice of medicine”. While legally that phrase has certain implications in the real world, it represents the fact that physician affiliations to these monolith healthcare systems or to huge practice groups dictate much of the decision-making with regard to the referral patterns to specialists.
A patient coming from a rural hospital is at the mercy of the system in which he/she seeks specialty care. They no longer have the familial relationship with the provider that is the historic bedrock of care in rural communities. When we started Curus, we were often confronted with the question of, “What do I need a healthcare manager for?” As we see the continuing consolidation of the healthcare delivery system where the patient has ceased to be the focal point of the care delivery process, the question has begun to answer itself. Without a dedicated team of skilled healthcare professionals who understand the nuances of the healthcare process, patients are directed rather than engaged by the healthcare professionals. They are part of the system, a process. As one physician told me recently – when the healthcare systems are run by “bean counters”; the role of both the patient and the doctor suffer.
