Home By the Numbers Interpret this: numbers involving physicians

Interpret this: numbers involving physicians

Numbers that probably mean something

February 2016
coding-consults-radmissions

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, the famous philosopher, posited that there are no facts, only interpretations. This initially seems absurd—our lives are filled with apparent facts—but it becomes more compelling when you play it out. Think about the patient with chest pain, ST-segment elevation and a sky-high troponin. The diagnosis is virtually self-evident but still involves conceptualization. Some reader is probably thinking about zebras or maybe even unicorns. Adam Gopnik put this slightly differently in an article in the Nov. 30, 2015, issue of The New Yorker: “Science isn’t a slot machine, where you drop in facts and get out truths.” He notes that science (and I would argue medicine) “is vulnerable to all the comedy inherent in any social activity: group thinking, self-pleasing, and running down the competition in order to get the customer’s (or, in this case, the government’s) cash.” Sure sounds like a hospital to me.

With that set-up, what follows are a bunch of numbers, all having to do with U.S. physicians, that beg for interpretation. As the physician executive of a large provider group, my mind spins in some predictable directions: medical error, provider attrition and nonproductive labor, just to name a few.

What do you make of them?

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coding-frenzDavid A. Frenz, MD, is vice president and medical director for mental health and ambulatory services for North Memorial Health Care in Robbinsdale, Minn. You can learn more about him and his work at www.davidfrenz.com or LinkedIn. 

Published in the February 2016 issue of Today’s Hospitalist
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