Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012
For Residents
Should hospital add "do no financial harm" to oath?
As health care costs continue to add to personal financial burdens, teaching hospitals are beginning to consider whether cost of care education might be an essential part of training.
One of cost-conscious care's biggest advocates, Vineet Arora, MD, of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, is trying to add "do no financial harm" to the Hippocratic oath taken by new doctors, according to the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Arora is creating learning modules to help trainees become mindful of the cost to society and to the patient of the care they're providing, and she poses the question: What if hotels billed guests the same way hospitals do?
You walk into the hotel totally unaware of the price of the stay, and then receive a bill with numerous charges neither you nor the hotel employees can understand. Dr. Arora and her supporters argue this lack of transparency, in which even the treating physicians are unaware of the cost of the care they're providing, leads to unnecessary procedures and causes higher costs for patients when medical bills are already the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S., the Tribune reports.
Other specialties, as reported by American Medical News, have also jumped onboard cost-conscious care education. Only time will tell if these curricula will make an impression on trainees in the best position to monitor their patients' costs.
Next AMA-RFS meeting is only two months away
The 36th AMA Resident and Fellow Section (RFS) Interim Assembly Meeting will take place Nov. 8–10 in Honolulu. Visit the meeting Web page to register for the meeting, view the agenda and submit a policy resolution. Resolutions are due Sept. 28. Visit the policy page for information on how to write and submit a resolution.
Elections also will be held for the following leadership positions:
- Resident member of the AMA Board of Trustees
- Resident member of the AMA Council on Medical Service
- AMA-RFS sectional and alternate delegates (18 AMA-RFS elected positions)
- Chair-elect of the AMA-RFS (one AMA-RFS elected position)
Applications are due Oct. 1. Residents and fellows interested in running for any of these positions must be present at the meeting.
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