UK Hospital gets below average marks on patient satisfaction, infections; data on your local hospital are available online

Despite $900 million being invested in expanding the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, its patients at do not seem all that happy with the care they receive there.

In an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Dr. Kevin Kavanagh of Somerset highlights the results of a survey on patients' hospital experiences. That survey ranked UK's hospital below state and national averages in nine of 10 measures. "Especially disturbing, only 66 percent said they would definitely recommend the institution, and only 56 percent stated their room and bathroom were 'always clean'," writes Kavanagh, chairman of Health Watch USA.

The UK hospital also did not fare well when it came to its assessment by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on hospital-acquired conditions. "UK had the highest reported rate of deadly vascular catheter infections in the state," Kavanagh writes. "UK also had an unacceptably high rate of falls and deep bed ulcers. These latter conditions should be zero."

Kavanagh concluded, "If there are quality problems at UK, it is of paramount importance that they are corrected since not only current patients are at risk but also the quality of the training experience of our future clinicians, which can affect care for years to come." (Read more)

Newspapers can access information about their area hospitals by clicking here. Viewers can choose up to three hospitals and see how they compare to one another in categories like: how well nurses communicate with patients; how quiet the areas around patients are; if patients would recommend the hospital; and if patients always received help as soon as it was wanted.

Newspapers can also see the results of the CMS assessment on hospital-acquired conditions for their area hospitals by clicking here and downloading the Hospital-Acquired Condition Rates zip file (scroll down to Kentucky hospitals). The file contains data on eight hospital-acquired conditions reported between Oct. 1, 2008 and June 30, 2010. Among the conditions reported are air embolism; blood incompatibility; catheter-associated infections; falls and trauma; foreign objects left in the body after surgery; pressure ulcers; uncontrolled blood sugar levels; and urinary tract infections.

Kentucky Rural Health Assn. gives first newspaper writing awards; Kentucky Health News writer wins for previous work

Tara Kaprowy, the chief writer for Kentucky Health News, won one of the first awards given by the Kentucky Rural Health Association for newspaper writing.

Kaprowy won the prise for best series in a non-daily newspaper for her five-part series in The Sentinel-Echo of London titled “How Healthy Are We?” The August 2010 series examined how Laurel County compared to state and national averages for tobacco use, obesity, access to health care, and so on.

Ivy Brashear, formerly of The Hazard Herald, won prize for best story in a non-daily paper for her April 6, 2011, article, “Health study has Perry near the bottom,” about a Population Health Institute study that ranked Perry’s health status as 115^th among the state's 120 counties. There were no daily entries; each winner received a plaque and $100 prize.

These types of reports can be done by any news outlet in Kentucky, because plenty of data are available on sites such as http://www.kyhealthfacts.org/. For a look at Kaprowy's series, go here.

Website helps journalists, community planners, other Kentuckians in search of county-specific health data

A treasure trove of health data about every county in Kentucky is available to journalists and community planners looking to draw a statistical picture of their area. That was the message of a webinar hosted by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Wednesday.

"We really hope the information we have on kentuckyhealthfacts.org will start a conversation," said Sarah Walsh of the foundation's "Local Data for Local Action" Initiative.

The website features a map of the state that is broken down by county. By clicking on a county, a plethora of information pops up, including information on a county's:

• demographics, such as graduation rates and per capita personal income;

• social and behavioral indicators, such as lack of physical activity and prevalence of smoking and obesity;

• health outcomes, such as infectious disease rates, motor vehicle deaths and premature death rates;

• access to care, such as flu vaccination rates, and number of available health care providers and physicians;

• maternal and child health, such as infant mortality, teen birth rates and low birthweight rates;
• senior health, such as the percentage of the senior population in a community.

The data can be compared to the rest of the state, the rest of the country or other counties, and users can create tables, bar graphs, line graphs or maps suitable for publication. "There's a lot of information here," Walsh said. (Graph created online shows obesity declining in Laurel and Pulaski counties after three years of increase, but still rising in Knox County and holding steadier in Rockcastle County. Up to six counties can be placed in one such graphic.)

The site is especially valuable to journalists, said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. "These are the hard facts that local news media need to report as they hold up a mirror to their communities and help them address community problems," Cross said. "In most Kentucky counties, one or more facets of health are a community problem. They need more attention." Kentucky Health News is a service of the institute, funded by the foundation.

Much of the data come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, a nationwide, random telephone poll that is conducted each year. Because there may not be enough survey responses from residents in some counties, much of the data on the site have been developed by looking at three or four counties that are near each other and demographically similar, which Walsh said makes the data more "stable and robust." Statisticians have reconfigured the data so that they are all based on a population of 100,000 people, enough to have confidence in the percentages.

While encouraging community planners to use the site, Walsh said the Kentucky Cancer Registry website is "one of the best in the nation" and has cancer-specific data that may not be available on kentuckyhealthfacts.org. She also pointed listeners to the Kids Count website, an Annie E. Casey Foundation-funded project that has statewide data specific to children.

What surfers won't find, however, are Kentucky numbers on the childhood obesity or childhood diabetes. "Different school districts and communities are collecting data but in different ways and at different ages," she said, adding those disparities make comparison analysis difficult. A bill to make schools collect and report body-mass-index data failed in the last session of the General Assembly.

The goal of Wednesday's webinar was to disseminate information so community planners can identify and address health needs in their area. "At the foundation we take a lot of inspiration from the words of Arthur Ashe, 'Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can'," Walsh said. "We believe communities can do a lot to change their health status." The webinar was part of the foundation's "Health for a Change: Ignite — Unite — Act" initiative and was the first in an ongoing series. The next session, July 27, will focus on how to plan a community health needs assessment. For more information about the series, click here.