Overdiagnosis is a Result of Wasted Efforts
Managing resources properly is a crucial objective for experts in contemporary healthcare. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that the efforts of a healthcare expert are not wasted during the process of diagnosing a particular issue. The phenomenon known as overdiagnosis can be regarded as a graphic example of wasted efforts in healthcare (Brodersen, 2017).
Because of the necessity to operate in diverse communities, modern healthcare practitioners tend to acquire new skills and information regularly to keep up the pace with the ever-changing environment of global healthcare. However, because of cultural differences, the instances of miscommunication occur regularly. As a result, the threat of determining the presence of an issue that a patient does not have may become a possibility. As a result, what might be deemed as a good intention, i.e., the willingness not to overlook certain health concerns, turns out to have an exactly opposite result on a patient’s well-being (Brodersen, 2017).
Apart from making a healthcare practitioner waste their efforts on identifying something that does not even pose a threat to a patient’s health, overdiagnosis may also entail a rise in costs and, thus, cause the subsequent waste of hospital resources. Indeed, by prescribing the medications that could have been used to address the needs of people that have the suspected condition, a healthcare practitioner wastes an impressive amount of resources (Brodersen, 2017).
To prevent the instances of overdiagnosis, one should consider improving the quality of interpersonal communication. The necessity to work in a diverse environment must be stressed. To be more specific, a healthcare practitioner must develop the ability to identify and cater to the needs of local demographics successfully (Brodersen, 2017).
Overtreatment as an Example of Wasted Resources
Careful management of available resources is typically viewed is a priority in any contemporary setting, the healthcare realm being no exception to this rule. However, surprisingly enough, it may be the willingness of healthcare practitioners to address the needs of their customers in a manner as efficiently as possible that may lead to the subsequent rise in waste levels, especially as far as the prescription of medications is concerned. Thus, overtreatment can be considered a prime example of resources being wasted and misused in the setting of modern healthcare.
As a rule, the instances of wasted resources can be observed in a healthcare environment in the scenarios that involve a combination of the lack of diagnosing skills and the desire to contribute to a faster recovery of a patient (Lyu et al., 2017). It could be argued that going over the allowed budget could be viewed as a legitimate step to take in case of a necessity to maintain patients’ well-being. However, when addressing overtreatment, the medications and healthcare services that patients receive imply that patients do not benefit from the specified services. On the contrary, there is a threat that once being provided with an excessive amount of medications, patients may experience deterioration of their health (Lyu et al., 2017). Also, there is a possibility of patients developing resistance toward drugs in case of overusing them as a result of overtreatment (Lyu et al., 2017). Therefore, preventing the identified situations must be regarded as one of the priorities that healthcare practitioners must meet.
Delivering services of the required quality to patients has little to do with overtreatment. The latter, in turn, may lead to even greater health complications, thus, affecting people’s well-being extensively. Thus, measures must be taken to prevent instances of overtreatment.
References
Brodersen, J. (2017). Overdiagnosis: An unrecognised and growing worldwide problem in healthcare. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 56(3), 147-149. Web.
Lyu, H., Xu, T., Brotman, D., Mayer-Blackwell, B., Cooper, M., Daniel, M.,… Makary, M. A. (2017). Overtreatment in the United States. PloS One, 12(9), e0181970. Web.