Some Hospitals Try Warranties

Normally, if you get an infection following open-heart surgery because the doctor forgot an antibiotic, you pay for it. That makes no sense. However, at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, you can pay a flat fee for bypass surgery and get what amounts to a 90-day warranty on your heart operations.

If you have any complications, Geisinger has to eat the extra cost. The program is called ProvenCare. called ProvenCare. At first, surgeons at the Danville, PA, hospital created a checklist of 40 best practices for heart bypass surgery.

Once the hospital became confident enough, then came the 90-day warranty. Through the use of the checklist, the hospital, although at first concerned about the warranty, was able to make it work.

Not only do ProvenCare patients recover faster, rehospitalizations for complications have fallen 40%, ProvenCare has been expanded from heart bypass surgery to other areas, including joint replacement and obesity surgery.

The lesson, according to the hospital is that by creating best practices, health care can be improved, to the point that hospitals are willing to take a chance on a warranty. Your health, guaranteed.