E 118 Kaiser Legend Jack Cochran MD Discusses Healer Leader Partner Book

A Doctor's Perspective Podcast

Dr. Jack Cochran, MD talks to Dr. Justin Trosclair DC on A Doctor's Perspective Podcast Problems with EMR, hospitals not co-managing patients, patients choosing between health, work and bankruptcy, medical tourism, doctor satisfaction and Jack Cochran MD of Kaiser goes in depth with his new book Healer Leader Partner. Plastic surgeon (extra speciality in pediatrics) based in Denver for many years, Board of Directors for Kaiser Permanente for 8 years, became CEO –National Physician Leader of the Permanente Federation (20 years and lead 21,000 doctors and 10 million policy holders) and has even helped in the White House talking about health policy. Dr. Jack Cochran is also a sought after speaker for many organizations. Skills to be a good leader: exceptional listener and a good balance not overly reactionary. Number 3 cause of death in America is – Medical Errors. Number 2 cause of bankruptcy is- Medical Cost. Health care was 10% GDP and 2 journals in his specialty when he just started. Now 30 years later 18% GDP and 40 Journals and 100+ Blogs for knowledge. Warren Buffett said, “health care is the tapeworm of the American economy.” Dr. Cochrane goes into detail about what heath care cost inflation is and how it impacts society from lessons learned at Kaiser. Remember the role of patient is involuntary and instantaneous. They don’t wake up and hope to break their arm. How do you get doctors to broaden their sense of responsibility to their patients so they don’t become non caring and patients don’t have to figure it out on their own? Family reality, they must ration health care at the kitchen table. What can be done when we have to choose between fixing the washing machine/ replacing the clutch in the truck and getting an MRI? How do we keep health care affordable and have high clinical quality? We also go through a little of the history of insurance and how sub-specialty of specialties has occurred. Who can make a sustainable health care… GOV regulation, insurance, doctors? Cost of MRI and Dr fees are too much … if we couldn’t get sued so easy would it make a difference? We talk about how an MRI in China is $100 while in USA it can be $700, what is the deal with that? Also, Dr. Cochrane touches on medical tourism and surgeries in India vs UK. What surprised me is how often we run unnecessary tests to satisfy the patient not just to avoid litigation. Should insurance companies reimburse their policy holders for many not spent and also cap the amount the CEO’s can make? Can technology further the specialization of each doctor field. Crunch all the data of successful surgeries, life expectancy, pain relief… and then that lead us to making decisions more? What has been the negative consequences of EMR to the doctor patient relationship and ways to make it easier for the doctors to implement without sacrificing the rapport? Why can’t all the patients records be more easily accessible? A disturbing analogy on how dysfunctional a hospital can be with their records and the 9/11 tragedy: the story is really worth the listen. Doctors blame WHO and patients blame WHO for the mess we are in? Plus Dr. Cochrane gives another 3 questions about responsibility that he gleamed from his many years at Kaiser leadership. What biases do you see doctors have toward patients? What is causing patients to distrust doctors? We end the interview discussing how hospitals could ban together, pool resources and even shut down repetitive departments to better serve the entire city. For example: 3 out of 4 hospitals have an oncology department but 2 of them see very few patients… could those two close down the oncology department and send them to the busy 3rd one? Jackcochranmd.com [e-mail] Book Healer Leader Partner Optimizing Physician Leadership to Transform Healthcare Show notes can be found at http://www.adoctorsperspective.