Bookmark & ShareFor Immediate Release: 04/06/2008
Puget Sound Health Alliance's first performance report now available to the public.
The Puget Sound Health Alliance has been hard at work the past year, gathering, checking and re-checking the data to produce a snapshot of the region's health for use in community-wide efforts to improve local health care. On January 31, 2008, the Alliance's first report, called the Community Checkup, was released to the public.
"This first Community Checkup is really a snapshot of the health care system in Puget Sound," said Margaret Stanley, executive director of the Alliance, "like the checkup patients have with their doctors, it shows where local health care seems to be healthy, and where it needs some work."
The Community Checkup compares certain aspects of care provided by the 14 clinic systems (which include more than 150 clinic locations in the five counties) that have volunteered to be part of this first report. The report measures types of care that help to promote better health and reduce the risk of complications and more severe illness, especially for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
"There are some basic types of health care that doctors and others agree should be provided for certain patients, like checking cholesterol for people with heart disease. The Community Checkup shows that even in these basic areas, there is variation in the region," said Stanley. "This is a challenge for all of us-doctors, patients, insurers and even employers that buy health benefits- and we all share a responsibility to be part of the solution."
The Community Checkup is the most comprehensive public report ever produced in this region, based on data compiled from fourteen health plans and self-insured purchasers and reflecting care provided to about 1.6 million people in the five counties. Personally identifiable health information - such as patient names and birthdates - was not included in the data used to create this report. The data did not include information about cost, payments or charges either.
The next Community Checkup report, which will come out later in 2008, will include results for all clinics in the Puget Sound region that have at least six clinicians and for which the Alliance has data for at least 250 patients for the condition being measured at that clinic location.
