Authors Urge Change in Measuring Performance
The JAMA Network published an editorial earlier this month by Michael Nurok, MD, PhD, associate professor of Surgery and director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, and Bruce Gewertz, MD, surgeon-in-chief and chair of the Department of Surgery, that advocates for a change in the current method of measuring physician performance.
In the piece, titled Relative Value Units and the Measurement of Physician Performance, the authors argue that the current model creates both an unattractive working environment for physicians and the potential for harm to patients from overtreatment. Instead, the authors urge the medical profession to shift from its emphasis on billing and replace it with a system that focuses more on patient-centered care.
"This important adjustment has the potential to improve patient satisfaction and sustain physicians' commitment to the highest professional ideals over the entirety of their careers," the authors wrote.
(Howard Bauchner, MD, editor-in-chief of JAMA, interviews Nurok about the editorial and measuring physician performance.)