Report ranks state's health care 2nd in U.S.
27.03.2008 05:00
Health
- Source: JS Online
Wisconsin ranked second in the nation in overall health care quality this year, losing the top spot to Minnesota in an annual report by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The state, which was No. 1 last year, consistently ranks among the top states in the country. "Overall, our state still did very well," said Dana Richardson, vice president of quality for the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The federal agency uses a complex formula, based on 15 core measures of quality in treating common diseases, for the state scores. The measures are considered the most important and credible. Wisconsin's overall score was 66.04 this year; Minnesota's score was 66.96. By comparison, Texas received a score of 35.1 and Florida a score of 38.93. Both those states were ranked weak in overall quality. Mississippi, one of the country's poorest states, had a score of 29.63. The state scores, though, are just a small piece of the full report. The agency tracks roughly 200 measures - some not available in all states - of health care quality for different types of care, settings and clinical areas. The goal is to provide feedback to policy-makers and health care providers. But the report, now in its fourth year, also is an example of the growing movement to track and publicly disclose performance measures of health care quality. The agency's report includes information on more than 100 measures for Wisconsin. That information is available on its Web site in detail and in summaries. For example, Wisconsin ranks strong in preventive care, acute care and chronic care. The state also has shown improvement in all three. It also is ranked strong in hospital, ambulatory and nursing home care. And it ranks very strong in respiratory care and strong in diabetes care. A few weak linksCancer care was the one area in which the state's performance has fallen. The state also rates poorly in home health care - though it has shown improvement. "Home health care is our weakest link," Richardson said. No state ranks high in all measures. Doctors, hospitals and other health care providers in Wisconsin, for instance, were given the highest marks for such measures as the number of pneumonia patients given antibiotics within four hours of arriving at a hospital and the percentage of short-term nursing home residents given influenza vaccinations during the flu season. The state was below average in such measures as hospital admissions that could have been prevented by flu shots. The agency doesn't release information on specific hospitals. But information on how hospitals are rated on certain performance measures is available through the Hospital Compare site, www. hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. The report and Web site are the most comprehensive gauge of the overall quality of health care in a state. "It's as good as we have out there frankly," Richardson said. In 1999, Congress provided funding for the agency to produce the report. "It took a couple years to figure out how to do it," said Karen Migdail, a spokeswoman for the agency. The agency and others are still working to develop and refine solid measures of health care quality. "We have gaps in certain areas," said Karen Ho, who leads the team that assembles the report. This year, the report added information on rates of obesity, health insurance coverage, mental illness and the number of specialist doctors in a state. An estimated 63% of the Wisconsin's population, for example, is overweight or obese. The additional measures had added more breadth to the surveys, Richardson said. "It's going to help us think more globally about the care we provide," she said. The next step will be to go beyond specific measures, such as whether aspirin is given to heart attack patients upon admittance or the rate of immunizations, and to look at total care for patients, including how care is coordinated. "It's going to be a while in coming," Richardson said. "But that's where I think we are headed next."
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