What's The Role Of A Hospital In 10 Years?

Dr. Eric Topol was named #1 Most Influential Physician Executive in Healthcare of 2012 by Modern Healthcare so his views are closely watched. In addition to his role as a cardiologist, geneticist and author of the Creative Destruction of Medicine, he’s also the Editor-in-Chief of Medscape (WebMD’s leading physician offering). Every health system CEO I’ve spoken with readily admits that we’ve essentially had a hospital building bubble with an over-capacity of 40-50% of hospital beds as we shift from the “do more, bill more” fee-for-service system to the “no outcome, no income” fee-for-value era.

Topol has gone on the record stating that in the future, the only real reason to have hospitals is for their Intensive Care Units if digital medicine is adopted. His recent tweet of his vision was provocative comparing it to Wired’s vision. Despite the widely held view of over-capacity and alternative scenarios such as Topol’s, I have yet to hear about the health system board thinking in these terms. With the board’s fiduciary responsibility to think further out than the CEOs since their tenure usually outlives CEO tenure, is this not a dereliction of their duties?

While some healthcare leaders may dismiss Topol, his ideas aren’t without precedent. In Denmark, they realized that most people weren’t having their end-of-life wishes met — generally speaking people want to be with family and friends at home while being warm, dry and pain free.  [...]