Why Overuse?

It's estimated that 30 percent of healthcare spending - $600-700 billion - is unnecessary and wasteful. Reducing waste and ensuring that all patients receive appropriate care, especially preventive services, can result in dramatic improvements in healthcare efficiency and effectiveness. As a National Priority, the Partners are working to eliminate unnecessary or risky care, and bring greater focus to efficient, appropriate, preventive care. 

Overuse can take many forms – an over-reliance on imaging scans that expose patients to radiation; unwarranted c-sections that put both mother and baby at risk; inappropriate medication prescriptions that can harm patients; and unnecessary end-of-life treatments that create painful burdens for patients and their families. In addition to putting patients at risk, overuse drains resources and makes healthcare more costly, less accessible, and less effective.

Ensuring access to reliable patient-centered primary care is an important step in eliminating waste. A consistent primary care provider can help reduce costly complications and unnecessary hospitalizations. Nearly 20 percent of those hospitalized with a preventable admission experience another within six months - making clear the need for high-quality primary care and preventive services.

Share your overuse stories, or learn more about this Priority.

Delivering Appropriate Care to All
The Partners are working to ensure that:

• All healthcare organizations will continually strive to improve the delivery of appropriate patient care, and substantially and measurably reduce extraneous service(s) and/or treatment(s):
  • Inappropriate medication use
  • Unnecessary laboratory tests
  • Unwarranted maternity care interventions
  • Unwarranted diagnostic procedures
  • Inappropriate non-palliative services at end of life
  • Unwarranted procedures
  • Unnecessary consultations
  • Preventable emergency department visits and hospitalizations
  • Potentially harmful preventive services with no benefit

Supporting Resources

• White Paper: Reducing Costs Through the Appropriate Use of Specialty Services - Institute for Healthcare Improvement

• How Many More Studies Will It Take? - New England Healthcare Institute

• Preference-Sensitive Care - The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

• Supply-Sensitive Care - The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

• Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve - Milbank Memorial Fund (available through Childbirth Connection)

Overuse in the News

• New York Times - The Great Prostate Mistake (3/9/10)

• Washington Post - In Delivering Care, More Isn't Always Better, Experts Say (9/29/09)

• CBS Evening News- Too Many Unnecessary MRIs and CT Scans? (9/24/09)

• New York Times - Studies Question Using Cement for Spine Injuries (8/6/09)

• New York Times - The Pain May Be Real, but the Scan Is Deceiving (12/9/08)