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December 25, 2016 Dear Patients, First, thank you for allowing me the privilege of
being your physician. I recently met with my friend and mentor from medical school, Steve Schimpff. Steve established himself as a world class infectious disease specialist and oncologist, and then later as CEO of a large academic teaching hospital. Since his retirement, Steve has authored a number of books. His most recent book is called the "Fixing the Primary Care Crisis" (). The
theme of the book -- and something I strongly believe -- is that changes
in medicine, technology, and hospital care have gradually deteriorated
the physician-patient relationship. The result has been an
increase in needless testing, a decrease in physician-patient
communication, inefficient hospitalizations, patient dissatisfaction,
and of course costs, more money. Through an interesting series of
events, Steve's book was brought to the attention of the CEO of an
enterprising startup company aimed at driving down health care
costs through at-home care. Interested in Steve's message about
the primary care system, the CEO asked Steve for a meeting. Steve
suggested that I join them, and I agreed. One
statistic in particular stood out to me during that meeting: The
average hospital stay for a patient hospitalized with pneumonia is 4.4
days, at a total cost of $16,000. A
number of those patients will be readmitted, costing the system even
more. Using this startup's inventive approach -- which
employs cutting-edge technology, visiting nurses and aides, physical
therapy, nutritional support, and (perhaps most importantly!) oversight
of a primary care physician -- would cost $8,000 for 30
days of care. This setup would allow
patients to be moved swiftly out of the hospital -- an overloaded,
expensive, error-ridden atmosphere -- and into their own homes under the
care of their primary care physician with much less likelihood of
re-admission. I look forward to watching this startup grow and,
hopefully, helping this vision come to fruition. Lastly, as always, a music video for your enjoyment, Chicago "We Can Make it Happen" Wishing you good health, HAO
Harry A. Oken, M.D.
Confidentiality Statement:
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