Startling Health Care Data
As an aging newsman, I'm sadly vexed by the data below.
Mainly because the numbers would have given me great fun – and a powerful series on health care – as an investigative reporter working for a real newspaper long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.
But that was then and this is now.
And yet....?
The data offer a mother load of anomaly-spawned questions startling enough to make any old time newsman drool.
And God alone knows the joy the data might provide a creative graphics editor.
For example:
Consider the patterns in uninsured in patients – versus insured patients.
Especially in Miami-Dade.
Might some of these numbers generate a few intelligent questions regarding the current fiscal meltdown at Miami-Dade's tax-supported Jackson Health?
And what about the data indicating Miami-Dade's private hospitals care for more uninsured inpatients than Jackson Health – at the same time Broward's private hospitals are providing inpatient care for far, far few indigent residents?
Plus there's the total domination of Broward's health care market by the county's tax supported hospitals...while it's the reverse in Miami-Dade.
Also, how does all this relate to Obamacare?
Finally, what's up with how the increase in Miami-Dade's patient population (3%) lags way, way behind the increase in the county's general population (18%)?
And so on....
Thing is. there's lots of juicy stuff here for an old time reporter.
Oh yes.
There's always the problem of asking the right experts to explain the mechanics of the anomalies in your story.
Hence, if I were back in the saddle, I'd forget anyone at Jackson Health or the University of Miami as reliable expert health care sources (like Jackson Health's CEO was trained to treat seriously fat people).
Thus, I'd take my questions to three of South Florida's best and brightest health care experts like:
Linda Quick, head of the South Florida Hospital Association
Frank Sacco, CEO of Memorial Healthcare
John Benz, an awesome numbers guru at Memorial Healthcare.
That said, beyond those three, there's no one I'd trust to get the straight skinny on the meaning of all these intriguing numbers from Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration and the University of Florida.
But still we have the startling healthcare trends and numbers....
Uninsured Patient Trends
SE Florida Hospitals
Average Daily Inpatients
Broward 1998 2008 %
Total Population 1,460,890 1,758,494 20.3%
Patient Census 2,601 3,135 20.5%
Insured 2,377 2,789 17.3%
Uninsured 224 346 54.5%
Tax Supported 1,330 1,946 46.3%
Uninsured 171 292 70.8%
% uninsured 12.9% 15.0%
Private 1,271 1,189 (6.5%)
Uninsured 53 54 1.9%
% uninsured 4.2% 4.5%
Miami-Dade 1998 2008 %
Total Population 2,090,314 2,477,289 18.5%
Patient Census 4,621 4,761 3.0%
Insured 4,444 4,427 (0.4%)
Uninsured 177 334 88.7%
Tax Supported 965 1,353 40.2%
Uninsured 24 149 520.8%
% Uninsured 2.5% 11.0%
Private 3,656 3,408 (6.8%)
Uninsured 153 185 20.9%
% uninsured 4.2% 5.4%
Fla. Hospitals 1998 2008 %
Total Population 15,000,475 18,807,219 25.4%
Patient Census 25,381 31,063 22.4%
Insured 24,149 29,046 20.3%
Uninsured 1,232 2,017 63.7
% uninsured 4.8% 6.5%
Tax Supported -
Broward: Broward Health & Memorial Healthcare
Miami-Dade: Jackson Health
SOURCE: Agency for Health Care Administration
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