Research has repeatedly shown that U.S. patients receive recommended care only half of the time. It is also known that patients receive non-recommended or “low-value” care as much as 20% of the time. Despite the proliferation of evidence-based guidelines to improve clinicians’ practice patterns, clinicians often don’t respond to them. So healthcare leaders have long wondered: what’s the best way to change clinicians’ behavior and improve their quality and efficiency of care?
Getting Doctors to Make Better Decisions Will Take More than Money and Nudges
Health care leaders need to pay attention to organizational culture too.
June 18, 2018
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Summary.
Studies show that in the United States, half of all patients fail to receive recommended care from their clinicians. Recent research has suggested that simple methods such as financial incentives and behavioral nudges could help to improve the situation. But that’s unlikely to effectively address the issue. In this piece, the authors argue that changing clinician behavior boils down to changing the organizational culture in which these clinicians work. It is only by making a concerted effort to understand and improve these cultures that we can achieve true, long-term change.