A recent Mayo study reinforces what we have always believed.  A person’s attitude and happiness really affect how quickly they recover.

“The study, which looked at 431 colon cancer surgery patients, found that the 13% of patients who had quality-of-life scores below 50 on a 100-point scale were almost 3 times as likely to have serious post-surgery complications as those with scores of 50 or above. In turn, those with complications were hospitalized an average of 3.5 days longer than the others.”

Given that each day in a hospital ICU will cost thousands of dollars, the financial impact is dramatic.

Many in the industry include social risk factor scoring in claims risk assessment, but it would be compelling if quality of life score data was incorporated as well.  The quote, “we can now measure quality of life like blood pressure” jumped off the page for me.

So in the context of our industry, this is great information and a great opportunity, but it is just as important to apply this to life. Attitude impacts everything in life, including health.  Work on improving your own happiness and quality of life score.  There is no limit on happiness.