- October 3, 2018
- Posted by: strategicbenefits
- Category: Uncategorized
Your Health Matters: Choose health care wisely
As patients, how can we be smarter about using our health care?
In seeking answers, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation launched the Choosing Wisely national educational campaign in 2012. The primary goals: Improve communication between patients and their health care providers and identify the most beneficial services during illness or wellness. For example, patients and their providers should question the need for routine screening of various conditions for people who are at low risk for those conditions, such as:
- Annual EKG’s or other cardiac screening for low-risk patients without symptoms.
- Antibiotics given prematurely for acute mild-to-moderate sinusitis.
- Imaging for acute (short-term) low back pain.
- Bone density screening for osteoporosis in young/middle-age people without risk factors.
Choosing Wisely’s efforts are teaching patients and providers to recognize that health does not always improve with more care. Because even if a test or treatment has been shown to benefit some, using it as a universal standard may not be appropriate. Their Mission is to promote conversations between clinicians and patients by helping patients choose care that is:
- Supported by evidence
- Not duplicative of other tests or procedures already received
- Free from harm
- Truly necessary
Beginning in 2012, national organizations representing medical specialists have asked their members to identify tests or procedures commonly used in their field whose necessity should be questioned and discussed. This call to action has resulted in specialty-specific lists of “Things Providers and Patients Should Question.”
To help patients engage their health care provider in these conversations and empower them to ask questions about what tests and procedures are right for them, patient-friendly materials were created based on the specialty societies’ lists of recommendations of tests and treatments that may be unnecessary.
Their Success Stories detail ways in which clinicians are implementing the campaign in their practice and how patients are avoiding unnecessary care.
Note: Choosing Wisely recommendations should not be used to establish coverage decisions or exclusions. Rather, they are meant to spur conversation about what is appropriate and necessary treatment. As each patient situation is unique, providers and patients should use the recommendations as guidelines to determine an appropriate treatment plan together.