How to Design Integrated Strategies to Improve Healthcare Quality Whilst Containing Healthcare Costs? A Response to the Recent Commentaries

Document Type : Correspondence

Authors

1 Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, IQ healthcare, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2 Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport, The Hague, The Netherlands

Abstract

How to Design Integrated Strategies to Improve Healthcare Quality Whilst Containing Healthcare Costs? A Response to the Recent Commentaries

Keywords

Full Text

We are pleased to read three thoughtful commentaries in response to our scoping review entitled “Hospitals bending the cost curve with increased quality.”1-4 We respond to their considerations in this correspondence. Our scoping review collected sparse evidence on integrated hospital strategies to contain costs whilst increasing quality, summarizing main lessons from 19 case studies in scientific and grey literature between 1989 and 2019. We found eleven themes that hospitals should take into account seeking to contain cost and increasing quality of care: strategy, leadership, finances, engagement, projects, culture, support, reorganization, data collection, skill development, and communication. ...(Read more...)

 

References

  1. Bal R, Wallenburg I. Linking costs and quality in healthcare: towards sustainable healthcare systems: Comment on "Hospitals bending the cost curve with increased quality: a scoping review into integrated hospital strategies". Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7461. doi:34172/ijhpm.2022.7461
  2. Wuebker A. Ways to improve hospital quality - a health system perspective: Comment on "Hospitals bending the cost curve with increased quality: a scoping review into integrated hospital strategies". Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7422. doi:34172/ijhpm.2022.7422
  3. Pai DR. Complexities of simultaneously improving quality and lowering costs in hospitals: Comment on "Hospitals bending the cost curve with increased quality: a scoping review into integrated hospital strategies". Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7442. doi:34172/ijhpm.2022.7442
  4. Wackers E, Stadhouders N, Heil A, Westert G, van Dulmen S, Jeurissen P. Hospitals bending the cost curve with increased quality: a scoping review into integrated hospital strategies. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2022;11(11):2381-2391. doi:34172/ijhpm.2021.168
  5. Søgaard R, Enemark U. The cost-quality relationship in European hospitals: a systematic review. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2017;22(2):126-133. doi:1177/1355819616682283
  6. Wackers E, Dulmen SV, Berden B, Kremer J, Stadhouders N, Jeurissen P. Improving performance in complex surroundings: a mixed methods evaluation of two hospital strategies in the Netherlands. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7243. doi:34172/ijhpm.2023.7243
  7. van Leeuwen LVL, Mesman R, Berden H, Jeurissen PPT. Reimbursement of care does not equal the distribution of hospital resources: an explorative case study on a missing link among Dutch hospitals. BMC Health Serv Res. 2023;23(1):1007. doi:1186/s12913-023-09649-4
  8. Gajadien CS, Dohmen PJG, Eijkenaar F, Schut FT, van Raaij EM, Heijink R. Financial risk allocation and provider incentives in hospital-insurer contracts in the Netherlands. Eur J Health Econ. 2023;24(1):125-138. doi:1007/s10198-022-01459-5
  9. Waitzberg R, Gottlieb N, Quentin W, Busse R, Greenberg D. Dual agency in hospitals: what strategies do managers and physicians apply to reconcile dilemmas between clinical and economic considerations? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2022;11(9):1823-1834. doi:34172/ijhpm.2021.87
  10. Kroon D, Stadhouders NW, van Dulmen SA, Kool RB, Jeurissen PPT. Why reducing low-value care fails to bend the cost curve, and why we should do it anyway. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7803. doi:34172/ijhpm.2023.7803
  11. Vlaanderen FP, Tanke MA, Bloem BR, et al. Design and effects of outcome-based payment models in healthcare: a systematic review. Eur J Health Econ. 2019;20(2):217-232. doi:1007/s10198-018-0989-8
  12. Maarse H, Jeurissen P. Low institutional trust in health insurers in Dutch health care. Health Policy. 2019;123(3):288-292. doi:1016/j.healthpol.2018.12.008
  13. Jeurissen PPT, Kruse FM, Busse R, Himmelstein DU, Mossialos E, Woolhandler S. For-profit hospitals have thrived because of generous public reimbursement schemes, not greater efficiency: a multi-country case study. Int J Health Serv. 2021;51(1):67-89. doi:1177/0020731420966976
  14. Tulp ADM, Kruse FM, Stadhouders NW, Jeurissen PPT. Independent treatment centres are not a guarantee for high quality and low healthcare prices in the Netherlands - a study of 5 elective surgeries. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2020;9(9):380-389. doi:15171/ijhpm.2019.144

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 20 October 2023
  • Revise Date: 25 October 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 October 2023
  • First Publish Date: 31 October 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics