More than a month a month, we wrote a post about how there are very few people who are confident they can grade a doctor’s skill or quality of care. It really is a tough job to find out which doctor is a good one. It requires a lot of research and investigation, and sometimes a reference from a friend or family member is the best way to find your doctor.
But this raises an especially important question regarding health care: if it’s difficult for us to judge the quality of care of doctors, then how confident are we supposed to feel when we send our children into surgery?
Well it appears that the medical field is taking steps to address this critical question. A task force that was commissioned by the Children’s Hospital Association has come up with a tiered grading system to help people in their endeavor to find the best care for their children.
The system provides a breakdown of surgical care centers that care for children into three tiers. Level I centers provide “comprehensive care,” and it is the highest level in the system. Level II provides advanced surgical care, while Level III provides basic surgical care.
There are more details provided in our source article, but the main point here is that the medical field is trying to improve their care, and make it easier for people to identify the facilities they need to go to. Every second counts when a medical emergency is ongoing, and making the clinic identification process easier helps in this regard.
Source: Wall Street Journal, “Programs Aim to Standardize Surgical Care for Children,” Laura Landro, Sept. 1, 2014
