Commentary to "Measurement of Resource Utilization for Total and Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty"

In this month’s issue of The American Journal of Orthopedics, Tannenbaum and colleagues present a “5 Points” article on “Measurement of Resource Utilization for Total and Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty.” This is an excellent article that summarizes the authors’ methodology of determining not only the overall cost of hospital care for shoulder replacement but a detailed analysis of many components contributing to that cost.

The steps are fairly straightforward: identify the various components of the cost, gather the data contributing to those costs, and then analyze what are the major expenditures that contribute to the overall cost. Sounds simple, but, in practice, it is anything but!

As health care expenditures in the United States continue to increase and approach 20% of the gross domestic product, every sector of the health care industry is searching for ways to curtail and eventually decrease the cost of health care. However, one cannot control costs without accurate data that defines those costs. In this article, Tannenbaum and colleagues have provided a methodology to help both hospital administrators and surgeons determine the overall cost of shoulder arthroplasty, but their principles of analysis can be applied to all aspects of hospital care.

Such efforts are gaining the attention of many leaders of the health care industry. For example, in the September 8, 2015, edition of The New York Times, I was very interested to read the article “What are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn.”¹ The article reviewed the efforts of Dr. Vivian Lee, chief executive at University of Utah Health Care, to determine the actual cost of all care provided by the university hospital, the same goal as the present 5 Points article on shoulder arthroplasty but on a vastly greater scale. Analyzing those costs guided Dr. Lee and her colleagues to alter clinical programs, which led to a decrease of 30% in hospital expenditures and fewer complications.¹

We are all indebted to Mr. Tannenbaum and his coauthors for providing the journal’s readers with a clear map that we can use to both understand and navigate the current maze of hospital costs. Using such a guide, we will be able to gather information that not only saves money, but will improve care by directing resources to services that actually benefit our patients.

In this month’s issue of The American Journal of Orthopedics, Tannenbaum and colleagues present a “5 Points” article on “Measurement of Resource Utilization for Total and Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty.” This is an excellent article that summarizes the authors’ methodology of determining not only the overall cost of hospital care for shoulder replacement but a detailed analysis of many components contributing to that cost.

The steps are fairly straightforward: identify the various components of the cost, gather the data contributing to those costs, and then analyze what are the major expenditures that contribute to the overall cost. Sounds simple, but, in practice, it is anything but!

As health care expenditures in the United States continue to increase and approach 20% of the gross domestic product, every sector of the health care industry is searching for ways to curtail and eventually decrease the cost of health care. However, one cannot control costs without accurate data that defines those costs. In this article, Tannenbaum and colleagues have provided a methodology to help both hospital administrators and surgeons determine the overall cost of shoulder arthroplasty, but their principles of analysis can be applied to all aspects of hospital care.

Such efforts are gaining the attention of many leaders of the health care industry. For example, in the September 8, 2015, edition of The New York Times, I was very interested to read the article “What are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn.”¹ The article reviewed the efforts of Dr. Vivian Lee, chief executive at University of Utah Health Care, to determine the actual cost of all care provided by the university hospital, the same goal as the present 5 Points article on shoulder arthroplasty but on a vastly greater scale. Analyzing those costs guided Dr. Lee and her colleagues to alter clinical programs, which led to a decrease of 30% in hospital expenditures and fewer complications.¹

We are all indebted to Mr. Tannenbaum and his coauthors for providing the journal’s readers with a clear map that we can use to both understand and navigate the current maze of hospital costs. Using such a guide, we will be able to gather information that not only saves money, but will improve care by directing resources to services that actually benefit our patients.

In this month’s issue of The American Journal of Orthopedics, Tannenbaum and colleagues present a “5 Points” article on “Measurement of Resource Utilization for Total and Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty.” This is an excellent article that summarizes the authors’ methodology of determining not only the overall cost of hospital care for shoulder replacement but a detailed analysis of many components contributing to that cost.

The steps are fairly straightforward: identify the various components of the cost, gather the data contributing to those costs, and then analyze what are the major expenditures that contribute to the overall cost. Sounds simple, but, in practice, it is anything but!

As health care expenditures in the United States continue to increase and approach 20% of the gross domestic product, every sector of the health care industry is searching for ways to curtail and eventually decrease the cost of health care. However, one cannot control costs without accurate data that defines those costs. In this article, Tannenbaum and colleagues have provided a methodology to help both hospital administrators and surgeons determine the overall cost of shoulder arthroplasty, but their principles of analysis can be applied to all aspects of hospital care.

Such efforts are gaining the attention of many leaders of the health care industry. For example, in the September 8, 2015, edition of The New York Times, I was very interested to read the article “What are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn.”¹ The article reviewed the efforts of Dr. Vivian Lee, chief executive at University of Utah Health Care, to determine the actual cost of all care provided by the university hospital, the same goal as the present 5 Points article on shoulder arthroplasty but on a vastly greater scale. Analyzing those costs guided Dr. Lee and her colleagues to alter clinical programs, which led to a decrease of 30% in hospital expenditures and fewer complications.¹

We are all indebted to Mr. Tannenbaum and his coauthors for providing the journal’s readers with a clear map that we can use to both understand and navigate the current maze of hospital costs. Using such a guide, we will be able to gather information that not only saves money, but will improve care by directing resources to services that actually benefit our patients.