Learning how to locate and use patient discharge data will make your reporting stronger and provide you with objective evidence for evaluating hospitals' claims. Such data can also lead to new story threads. Here's a quick-start guide.
Healthcare Systems & Policy
When you’re searching for a question to guide your data reporting, it's worth thinking about scope and impact. How big or small is the problem you are trying to explain or expose?
A recent Sac Bee investigation revealed disturbingly high staff turnover rates at a number of California nursing homes. You can discover similar trends by learning how to navigate the data in California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and similar agencies nationwide.
Sign-ups for insurance on the federal and state health exchanges end in less than a month, and the state's push to enroll more Latinos appears to be paying off. Meanwhile, safety net providers such as Clinica Sierra Vista are focused on both signing up and retaining patients.
At a Navajo Reservation community in Chinle, Arizona, 734 have enrolled and nearly 20,000 residents have been provided with Affordable Care Act (ACA) information, local health officials said. The potential for enrollment here could make Chinle ground zero for ACA recruitment in Indian country.
Every time someone famous dies after a medical error, hopes rise that we will see a meaningful response that will improve patient safety conditions. Joan Rivers' death has, in an incredibly quick time frame, led to some significant consequences for those involved.
In California, the range of physician performance is surprisingly wide, according to a recent survey that ranked groups on a 100-point scale. More than 40 physician groups scored below 60. Where might we find insights into how to help these low-performers improve?
"Narrowing of networks" was an abstract concept to me until Blue Shield narrowed my own network of healthcare providers, most of whom I have been seeing for 18 years.
A recent California survey found that even the highest-rated provider group received only a C+ rating from its patients. Does this reveal deep flaws in the way care is delivered or have patients come to expect too much from health care providers?
Health care providers aren't perfect. None of us are. But in a recent report on patient experiences, California physician groups were assigned a rating on a scale of 0 to 100. Not one group managed to score in the 80s or 90s. What's going on here?