Overcoming obstacles in U.S. health care delivery with a new practice model for family practice

Martey S. Dodoo, PhD, and Andrew Bazemore, MD

Despite brisk advances in science and technology and a bounty of medical knowledge, tools, and techniques to enhance patient care, US physicians still labor daily to provide the highest quality care to their patients at reasonable cost. They struggle against a complex collection of economic and business hurdles and obstacles imposed by the health care system. These challenges have made the current system unworkable for many physicians. Policy analysts have argued that the system cannot continue this way for much longer and have speculated that health care service delivery in the US will soon become a crisis unless it undergoes a major overhaul. This essay highlights some of the hurdles and obstacles that have hindered physicians and presents brief summaries of some proposals currently being discussed to overcome them.

Dodoo MS, Bazemore A. Overcoming obstacles in US health care delivery with a new practice model for family practice. Virtual Mentor: Ethics Journal of the American Medical Association. 2005; 7(6) Medicine and Society.