{"id":330,"date":"2008-10-19T22:22:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T03:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=330"},"modified":"2008-10-22T20:18:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T01:18:00","slug":"overtreatment-sometimes-against-our-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2008\/10\/overtreatment-sometimes-against-our-will.html","title":{"rendered":"Overtreatment – sometimes against our will"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s an unpleasant aspect of patient empowerment: we need to be aware that sometimes our providers will heap treatments on us that aren’t necessary – and, sometimes, treatments we’ve specifically said we don’t want.<\/p>\n

Paul Grundy MD, chair of PCPCC<\/a>, had this happen recently during his own father’s final illness. He commented<\/a> about it today, on our post Blogging To Save a Father’s Life<\/em>. He says this happens “well over 50% of the time.”<\/p>\n

Not only does this directly violate the patient’s rights (not to mention human decency), it runs up our costs phenomenally.<\/p>\n

The subject was also discussed here in July<\/a>, in reference to Shannon Brownlee’s book Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer<\/a><\/em>. She asserts that 20-30% of every healthcare dollar is overtreatment. In the two trillion dollar US healthcare system, that’s four to six hundred billion a year of waste – more than enough to fund universal healthcare for the entire US population.<\/p>\n

Lessons for us as empowered patients and advocates:<\/p>\n