Clinical Volume and the Holidays

Blogs have been somewhat sporadic because the operating rooms have been extremely busy. In trying to understand why, I learned that patients are squeezing in elective surgeries before the end of the year to use their flexible health spending accounts and maximizing their insurance policies. As a result, we've been booking a lot of cases trying to get everything done. Finances are a big driver in patient decision-making. Rather than "waste" flexible health spending accounts, patients will choose to get elective surgeries that perhaps they would have waited on. On the one hand, perhaps we are doing some unnecessary procedures since to some extent money is driving decisions rather than medical necessity. But on the other hand, we begin to understand how economic incentives influence consumer decision-making. Can financial carrots encourage patients to take better care of themselves, exercise, eat healthier, get preventive medicine, take their medications? How do we take advantage of patient motivators to improve health care delivery and outcomes? Important questions to ponder when work gets less busy.