Health care is a growth sector, but that is not necessarily good news. We appear to be adding more workers, because each worker is doing less. See full article in the NEJM.
Real Sector Growth (Compound Annual Growth Rate), 1990–2010
From what I understand, once (if) the Obamacare reform is fully underway in a few years, more specialist, assistants, etc. will be brought in to compensate for the declining number of physicians in some areas. I wonder if that could actually contribute to the decline more.
More things are being treated nowadays than in the past and so more workers are being brought in. It appears as though the sector hasn’t figured out how to maximize efficiency yet.
It’s hard to fathom that labor market productivity has declined in health care. Just imaging all the health IT projects and telemedicine applications available to allow nurses to do more with fewer people. The pharmacy at the hospital where I worked had a robot to deliver drugs to the patient floors.
From what I understand, once (if) the Obamacare reform is fully underway in a few years, more specialist, assistants, etc. will be brought in to compensate for the declining number of physicians in some areas. I wonder if that could actually contribute to the decline more.
More things are being treated nowadays than in the past and so more workers are being brought in. It appears as though the sector hasn’t figured out how to maximize efficiency yet.
“More workers doing less” describes any number of government endeavors.
It’s hard to fathom that labor market productivity has declined in health care. Just imaging all the health IT projects and telemedicine applications available to allow nurses to do more with fewer people. The pharmacy at the hospital where I worked had a robot to deliver drugs to the patient floors.
Devon, for every robot, how many people are being hired to do regulatory compliance?