OnSiteClinics.Org

Commonwealth Fund Scorecard

The Commonwealth Fund is focused on developing a “high performance health system.”   Toward that goal, they have conducted studies, awarded grants for research, published significant articles, etc.   The one we want to point you all toward is their “Rising to the Challenge:  Results from a Scorecard on Local Health System Performance, 2012.”

We recognize we are behind the curve on this one, and we apologize for that.  But, this study/survey reports results on 306 “local health care areas” on 43 different measures including costs, avoidable hospital use, outcomes, etc.   It just might have data on one of the areas in which your company is located, and in which your employees live and work.

The study has an interactive map which can be used to compare data from area-to-area.  It shows, for example, that potentially avoidable hospitalizations can vary by up to fourfold from one area of the U.S. to another.   A good deal of the data is from CMS, but the wide variations in care from locality-to-locality and region-to-region is pretty stunning.  It may give you some food for thought when you are working with local providers, or developing your own services.