What is different this time, some hospital executives argue, is that new technology enables closer, faster tracking of individual doctors, and the new insurance payments factor in quality goals. But partly because many of the efforts are new, broad results are scarce. The Advisory Board says that among hospitals using its software for three years, lengths of inpatient stays fell 2.9%, on average, and readmissions fell 4.5%.
Hospital executives nationwide say that many doctors, particularly younger ones, are receptive. But others feel second-guessed. “The whole way you get trained is to be the decider, the captain of the ship,” says Michael Sills, a cardiologist and technology executive at Baylor Health Care System in Texas. Now someone will be “monitoring their productivity, monitoring their costs. They’re not going to like it one little bit.”
