Healthcare Processes are Wasteful
Out of $1 trillion spent in 1998 (14% of GNP):
- $250 billion were wasted on unnecessary care and excessive administration costs (Hambrecht & Quist)
- $29 billion were incurred as a result of preventable medical errors (Institute of Medicine)
For instance, illegible prescriptions
- Cause confused pharmacists to make 150m calls per year to physicians (5% of prescriptions)
- Cause 53% of pharmacists to admit making drug errors in the preceding 2 months (1997 Drug Topics Survey)
- Affect 16% of the 3 billion prescriptions written by physicians (1997 Drug Survey Topics)
Complex administrative procedures
- Cause pharmacists to spend 20% of their time on paperwork, as much as on filling prescriptions (Andersen Consulting, 12/2/99)