Evidence for overuse of medical services around the world

Abstract

Summary Overuse, which is defined as the provision of medical services that are more likely to cause harm than good, is a global problem that afflicts rich and poor countries alike. This article reviews the definition of overuse, methods for measuring overuse, harms from overuse, and the evidence for worldwide overuse of many types of services.

A prospective study to evaluate access to elective surgical services in a urology unit of Sri Lanka

“…Long waiting times may be due to shortage of resources (surgical beds, lack of medical equipment), lack of operating room time, short staffing or inefficiencies in the organisation of services. Sometimes it may be due to inappropriate overuse of medical services [16]. Excessive waiting times may lead to adverse health effects such as stress, anxiety and morbidity related to the index illness [17].…”

CJEM Debate Series: #Copayment – Medical insurance is for non-routine events

“…Amazingly, you can't even find out which companies' treks are more or less expensive, or which of the treks that your insurer will cover! Overuse of medical services is a major problem in wealthy countries (especially in the United States, but also in Canada), [1][2][3] and contributes not only to skyrocketing expenditures, but also to major medical harm because of false-positive test findings, incidentalomas, and overdiagnosis. [4][5][6] At the same time, overuse may crowd out spending for needed medical services, 7 contributing to the parallel problem of underuseparticularly for those who most need such care such as the poor and those with chronic illnesses.…”

Health System, Health Equity

“…During the last few decades, many papers have been published in different medical journals regarding this issue. The latest of those articles are four papers about overuse and underuse of medical services and procedures around the world, published in Lancet in January 2017 (3)(4)(5)(6).…”