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CBS and NBC both filed features on hospitals. NBC's Making a Difference took us to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, which has a $20m budget shortfall and faces 600 layoffs. Peter Alexander told us that management turned to the workforce for cost-cutting ideas. So far they have found enough to save 450 of the 600 jobs. Don Teague used to work for NBC. Now he turns up on CBS for the first time, in Austin at the University of Texas' Medical Center Brackenridge.
Teague told us the inside story of hospital emergency room cost overruns: "a handful of familiar faces" returning over and over again taking up "massive amounts of time and resources." Over a six year period in Austin just nine patients--addicted, homeless, mentally-ill--racked up $3m in medical bills for almost 2,700 visits to the ER. One might think that the cost-saving solution would be improved mental healthcare and drug rehabilitation. Not so, according to Teague: "The report's authors say the key to solving the problem is technology identifying those who abuse the ER system." However, if you check out the commenters at cbsnews.com (Ann Kitchen and ER Doc 2009 and Starks 12), you will see that Teague gets told off for this focus on the technocratic approach.
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