Quality Healthcare Must Serve Individual Needs of Patients

(CHICAGO)
Quality healthcare must reinsert consumers as the primary decision makers for their healthcare, says a report published by the Center for Health Transformation (CHT). The 21st Century Intelligent Health System: An Individual-Centered Approach describes the necessary steps to reform our healthcare system to meet the individual needs of patients. The paper provides patient statements and examples of how the needs of patients and family members are being met, and suggests that higher quality care can be provided at a much lower price if the consumer disciplines the industry.
"As a patient, I understand all too well what it is like to be left out of the discussion," said Lynette Bisconti, a patient advocate and cancer survivor. Bisconti was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks after discovering she was pregnant.
"To beat cancer, save my baby and have a quality of life on par with what I had before cancer, I knew I needed to be actively involved in decisions about my medical care," Bisconti said. "These were my life and health goals - individual to me - and I needed my care team to understand what I valued most, to listen to me and respect my decisions about my cancer treatment."
The CHT paper makes a compelling case for healthcare reform that creates a system built around individual needs.
"The overriding difference from every other high quality reasonable cost industry and healthcare is that we have removed the consumer and what they value from decision-making," said Steve Bonner, president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America and co-chair of the CHT working group that developed the report.
"The Central point of our paper is that our healthcare system must reengage the consumer and include what they value in the process," Bonner said. "Then as providers of their care, we must figure out what the consumer is willing to pay for and then we must all compete to deliver the best products and services at the most attractive prices."
Bisconti sought a total of eight medical opinions. In each of the first six she felt she was being treated like a protocol, not as an individual. "Protocol said terminate the pregnancy, try to save the mother and call it a day," said Bisconti. "The clinical cookbook never seemed to change.
"My journey was completely transformed when I found a hospital that embraced my individual needs," Bisconti continued. "I had surgery and chemotherapy while pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy. Today I remain free of disease and my son is a happy, healthy, wonderful little boy who lights up my world."
Bisconti believes the patient as a full partner in healthcare decision-making has been a missing element in the decades-long healthcare reform debate.
"Patients can make decisions for themselves. We want to make decisions for ourselves," said Bisconti. "Unfortunately, our current system has trained us to follow, not to lead."

India's first 'sea bridge' opens in Mumbai

MUMBAI (AFP) – India's first "sea bridge" was officially opened in Mumbai on Tuesday, raising hopes that the state-of-the-art structure will ease chronic congestion on the city's notoriously choked roads.
The sweeping, 5.6-kilometre (3.5-mile) Bandra-Worli Sea Link was inaugurated by the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on a visit to India's financial capital.
It is hoped that the 16.5-billion-rupee (340-million-dollar) eight-lane freeway will help cut the 40-minute journey between the suburbs of Bandra and Worli to just eight minutes.
But although hailed as a triumph of engineering, the landmark bridge -- seen as a beacon of hope for other, much-needed infrastructure projects elsewhere in India -- is not fully operational.
Only four lanes will be open to traffic from 12:01 am Wednesday. Work is scheduled to be completed on the remaining section in the coming months.

Plane with 153 crashes off Comoros, child rescued

MORONI, Comoros – A Yemenia jet with 153 people on board crashed into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it tried to land during strong winds on the island nation of Comoros. Officials said one child was plucked alive from the sea.
There was no word on other survivors. At least three bodies were recovered, authorities said.
The crash comes two years after aviation officials reported faults with the aircraft, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
A child was rescued from the water after the crash, according to Rachida Abdullah, a police immigration officer who works at the operations center in the Comoros, and Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader.
Qader said he was told the child was 5 years old. Further details on the rescue and the child's condition were not immediately available.
Three bodies from the flight were retrieved along with debris from the plane, Abdullah said.
Qader said it was too early to speculate on the cause and the flight data recorder had not been found, but the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.
"The weather was very bad ... the wind was very strong," he said, adding the windy conditions were hampering rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea in as many months. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean May 31, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
A crisis center once again was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Many passengers were from the French city of Marseille, which has a large Comoros community.
"There is considerable dismay," said Stephane Salord, the consul general of the Comoros in the Provence-Alps-Cote d'Azur region of France. "These are families that, each year on the eve of summer, leave Marseille and the region to rejoin their families in the Comoros and spend their holidays."
In France, this week is the start of annual summer school vacations.
The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated about 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. It is a former French colony of 700,000 people.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of the Comoran coast and 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the Moroni airport.
French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" during a 2007 inspection of the plane that went down, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said on i-Tele television Tuesday.
In Brussels, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks and was not on the bloc's blacklist. But he said a full investigation was now being started amid questions why passengers were put on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San'a.
An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia (Yemen Airways) since 1999. Airbus said it was sending a team of specialists to the Comoros.
The A310-300 is a twin-engine widebody jet that can seat up to 220 passengers. There are 214 A310s in service worldwide with 41 operators.
Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesman, said a patrol boat and reconnaissance ship were being sent to the crash site as well a military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as medical personnel, he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy "expressed his deep emotion" about the crash and asked the French military to help in the rescue operation, particularly from the French islands of Mayotte and Reunion.
Yemenia airline officials say the 11-member crew was made up of six Yemenis, including the pilot, two Moroccans, one Indonesian, one Ethiopian and 1 Filipino. The officials asked that their named not be used because they were not authorized to speak to the media.