Outcomes Fall Flat

The evidence keeps pouring in that the great “Quality Movement” is failing.  A new study shows that the hospital report cards on quality did NOT improve patient outcomes.   As reported in Health Affairs and explained here in the American Medical News:

Seven years after the federal government started publicly reporting hospitals’ performance on quality measures, evidence suggests that this transparency effort has not improved patient outcomes measurably.

The word on the street is to “temper our expectations”.  How is that for an understatement?  What about the cost for this mess?  I have been screaming from the rafters for years now but no one wants to listen.  Quality measures, though sound nice and should intuitively work, are an absolute failure.  People cannot be treated as numbers.   Nature has a way of proving us wrong every time.  Has no one seen Jurassic Park?  It was written by a physician, you know.