FRONTLINE | Doctor Hotspot (full report) | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/doctor-hotspot/
New Yorker writer and FRONTLINE correspondent Atul Gawande reports on a doctor in Camden, N.J., who actually seeks out the community's sickest — and most expensive — patients.

Dr. Jeffrey Brenner is a local physician who some believe might have the model to solve one of America's most intractable problems: lowering the cost of health care. While analyzing medical billing data in Camden, N.J., he mapped out "hot spots" of the impoverished city's high-cost patients. By targeting unique care -- including home visits and social workers -- at the city's most costly patients, he developed a program that he argues has both lowered health care costs and provided better care in Camden. But can his model work for the rest of the nation?

Dr. Brenner's organization, the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers (http://www.camdenhealth.org/about/history/), and other similar models were the subject of a January 2011 feature in The New Yorker by journalist and physician Dr. Atul Gawande (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande?currentPage­=all)

Watch more than 100 full FRONTLINE episodes at http://pbs.org/frontline

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Doctor Hostpot
• healthcare
• FRONTLINE
• The New Yorker
• documentary
• Camden

[LexBravary]

I'm sad that Frontline has had budget cuts, resulting in shorter episodes.

[PBS]

@LexBravary Actually, there are *more* episodes of FRONTLINE than ever before. Some of them, however, have several segments in one hour. This is one of those segments.

[khunopie]

I like Frontline!

[bluegreen1138]

When you are trained to use guns, that training should include how to apply direct pressure to gun shots wounds shouldn't it, or is this part of a "genocide of neglect"? I drunk off duty police officer told me, "We let them kill themselves, and I'm not risking my life for them." I believe the lack of a decent social-net is part of the plan. The lack of a first-world level health care shows blood-thirsted bigotry, and I for one am ashamed.

[fallfrisco]

@Angelsigns2012 yeah but medicare and medicaid is looking into things like this

[maguirejon]

Very interesting story. On my blog (mydatamine.blogspot.com) I posted some numbers from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data from 2008 about how this might ramp nationally.

[foreverflavorful]

a ten year old can buy a machine gun in 5 minutes in CAMDEN NJ.

[Angelsigns2012]

This practice will never get off the ground. To many CEO's and shareholders will make sure it never does. There is no money in a healthy population.

[8yume]

@gravityhammer25 Yes.

[FissionNonStop]

This is awesome, I wish this man luck! Change in this country will come one day...this gives me hope.

[NU13NU13NU13]

HOTSPOT WHERE

HOT AS IN TEMPERATURE RADIATON

SPOT AS DIRECTION

[iqbalvakula]

fantastic

[UnchangeableBird]

A bucket of bleach costs about a dollar. Clean your goddamned house, you lazy morons!

[gravityhammer25]

Camden police.....are there even police in Camden anymore? I mean enough to make a difference and that have the right morals!!