Longtime THCB reader Barry Carol writes in on Matthew’s "Shocker …"

"Most hospital CEO’s, especially those who oversee academic medical centers, would probably tell you that their profit margins are quite low and that they could not make ends meet or continue to provide the quality of care they do now if they had to accept Medicare rates from all comers, even with no uncompensated care …"

David Kibbe continued the ongoing dialogue on the thread on the "Rebooting Health IT" series he is co-authoring with Brian Klepper.  

"Having thoughtful physicians like yourself enter the debate and
discussion is one of the primary reasons that Brian Klepper and I are
doing these blogs on re-thinking health IT! Thanks for your input,
which I think is brilliant … Let’s not forget the story of John Snow and the removal of the Broad
Street pump handle, during the deadly cholera outbreak in London in
1854. While all the experts were debating the causes of the infection
and what to do about it, Dr. Snow had the simplest and most direct
answer of all: remove access to the offending source of the calamity."

Maggie Mahar had this to say in response to David Kibbe and Brian Klepper’s reform-minded post "Let’s Reboot America’s Healthcare IT Conversation Part II"   

"This
is yet another example of money (and the desire to make money) driving
decisions in our healthcare system. As one doctor told me: my practice
spent $1.2 million on our EMR system–and I’d like to throw it out the
window. It offers 17 ways to capture charges. We don’t need 17 ways. We
need the best way."

In response to Matthew’s post on the Obama’s administration’s pick of CNN Health reporter Sanjay Gupta to be the next Surgeon General, Damon writes:

"The
term "Surgeon General" does not mean that the holder of the title must
be a surgeon or that he/she is a general.  The office was established
in the 1870s, when the term "surgeon" was commonly used to refer to any
physician. And "general" is not meant as a military reference, but as a
title that means "supervising" – the same way it’s used in "Attorney
General" …

More Commentology coming soon ..