Waste Not, Want Not: The Right Care for Every Patient 

Up to 30 percent of healthcare services delivered each year in the United States are estimated to be unnecessary. This overuse, amounting to approximately $700 billion a year, is both wasteful and often dangerous to patients.1 This issue brief talks about how to eliminate waste, harm, and disparities to create and expand world-class, patient-centered, affordable health care.1. Wennberg J, Brownlee S, Fisher E, et al., An Agenda for Change: Improving Quality and Curbing Health Care Spending: Opportunities for the Congress and the Obama Administration, A Dartmouth Atlas White Paper, Lebanon, NH: The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice; 2008. Available at www.dartmouthatlas.org/topics/agenda_for_change.pdf. Last accessed April 2009.