The conceptual map demonstrates that an overused service can lead directly to short- and long-term negative consequences for patients. This appeared in the article, “Development of a Conceptual Map of Negative Consequences for Patients of Overuse of Medical Tests and Treatments,” JAMA Internal Medicine, October 2018. It is reproduced here with permission of JAMA Internal Medicine.
It’s easy to understand the economic arguments against exposing people to medical treatments and tests that many experts say are unlikely to help them. But it’s been tougher to quantify medical reasons for avoiding what researchers call “low value” care.
A paper published July 23 in JAMA Health Forum may bring more clarity to the discussion.
About 1% of admissions for certain procedures widely considered to be of low value were linked to subsequent complications such as infections, foreign objects left in patients, falls and bedsores, wrote the authors of this paper, “Adverse events and hospital-acquired conditions associated with potential low-value care in Medicare beneficiaries.”
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to estimate hospital-acquired harms for U.S. Medicare beneficiaries associated with low-value care,” the authors wrote. Continue reading
