Medical Hotspotting: When treating patients like criminals makes sense
Last month, Stanford University Medical Center quietly announced plans to open a new clinic in the spring of 2012. That is not unusual. What is different is that while the clinic will one day be open to the community, it will initially serve only employees of Stanford University, Stanford Hospital (and clinics), and their family members.
Inside that group, the clinic will treat only those with serious chronic illnesses. It will operate under an innovative health care delivery model called “patient-centered intensive primary care.” That’s a mouthful of medical jargon. But the model sometimes goes by another name: “medical hotspotting.”
Medical hotspotting traces its roots to a law enforcement strategy that involves mapping where crimes are committed in a given region and then applying extra police resources in areas considered hot spots. Advocated by former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton in the mid-1990s, the approach was credited as an important element in reducing crime in New York City by 60%.
