A Dartmouth Atlas Project Brief Report Hospital and Physician Capacity Update A Brief Report from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

Regional variation in hospital and physician capacity reveals the irrational distribution of valuable and expensive health care resources. Better planning of future growth in capacity can help build a more effective and affordable health care system. Health care costs continue to rise as quality lags— where is the money spent? Reform of the U.S. health care system is often portrayed as an unattractive choice between quality and affordability. Health care costs continue to rise at a faster pace than either the Gross Domestic Product or inflation, straining public budgets and eroding workplace insurance coverage. Over 45 million have no insurance at all. Our national strengths in biomedical innovation have produced remarkable and often beneficial interventions, but they are too often used in situations where the benefits are unproven or nonexistent. Meanwhile, patients frequently fail to receive care that has been proven to be effective. We all know that health care is expensive, but there is less discussion about where the money is spent. Some costs are easy to identify. Patients are often shocked a