The Hot Helicopter Atul Gwande Summary

Hot Spotters
21st Century Healthcare Systems

Upon reading the article “The Hot Spotters”, written by Atul Gwande it became apparent how our healthcare system has and continues to fail our patients in various ways. To begin with, our healthcare system is very fragmented due to the lack of collaboration, communication and coordination between care providers as well as health care facilities. Also, our healthcare system is more focused on the medical model and in some situations, neglects the importance of primary and preventative care. Lastly, the cost of healthcare is a topic that has been discussed endlessly. However, the fact is that the cost of medical care, drugs and devices is only escalating and is often left
There is a prevalent disconnect in the system which ultimately leads to inefficiency and reduced quality of care. There needs to be an effective way for care providers and facilities to systematically collaborate. This lack of communication is most recognizable when a patient is shifted from one facility to another. In such a scenario, physicians are not sure of what conditions the patient is or has suffered from or what type of tests have been conducted. This puts the patients’ health at risk and can also increase the cost of care due to the tests that will probably be repeated. The article provided a particular example in which coordination not only improved the quality of care patients received but also cut down on costs. In the example, the nurse’s only duty was to improve the coordination of care which
Currently we have an imbalance in our physicians since there are more specialty doctors than primary doctors. This may be because most medical students are choosing the specialist route over primary because of the drastic increase of income. However, if we were to shift our attention to primary and preventative care; we can catch illness early on and reduce the cost by preventing the need to see a specialist. Also as the article mentions, the increase of primary care can cut down on emergency room visits. An example of this was how a woman would end up in the emergency room every time she had a migraine and the physicians would provide her with the medication she needed which cured her migraines temporarily however, she would be back in the emergency room within a couple of weeks (Gwande 25). These emergency room visits could have been easily prevented by seeking a primary care physician where he would try different medications and provide patient centered care. It is with situations like these where patients are not utilizing the healthcare services properly. To fix such a problem, patients need to be educated on when to seek primary care and when to seek urgent care. Also, we need to look at both medical and non-medical determinants such as behavior and socio-economic status. Determinants are very beneficial when attempting to provide preventative