Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

A Look At the Healthiest and Unhealthiest ZIPs in the US

By Gavin Chance 

Even more so than in the past, health and wellness are top of mind as we begin a new year. Americans everywhere are setting New Year’s resolutions and hoping for a healthier, happier 2021.

It can be beneficial to understand the past state of our health as we collectively look to the future and make plans for improvement. This infographic shares statistics and trends about our health as a country, focusing on the following information from 2018:

• The average amount spent on health

• The average number of visits to the doctor

• The number of cigarettes smoked

• The average amount spent on prescription drugs

How to Be More Insightful and Strategic with Data-Based Findings

By Lee Ann Lambdin and Forrest Rich

At the close of each quarter, strategic planners in the healthcare industry have the opportunity to present quarterly findings and progress updates to executive teams and upper-level management. These quarterly meetings often provide critical insight necessary for continued advancement in planned growth-related projects. They could also be the ideal time to present new ideas.

These meetings present an opportunity to share key findings to leadership that can change the course of how a hospital’s planning, marketing, and business development departments will function in the weeks and months to come. Therefore, it is critical that you're prepared to tell the most compelling story possible with the data you have on-hand.

Stay Safe this July 4th by Avoiding these Injury Trends

By Gavin Chance

Don’t become a statistic—stay safe this July 4th! In an effort to help you prepare for this holiday and avoid the most common accidents, we’re sharing our research covering five years of fireworks injury data. Here's what we found:

• 72% of fireworks accidents occur at home
• Men are twice as likely to become injured as women
• 27.9% of injuries happen to children, ages 0-10 years old

Click-to-Tweet: Did you know? 72% of fireworks accidents occur at home, 11.75% occur in public, and 11% at sporting events.

Interested in learning more, such as the most common diagnoses and where most injuries occur? Check out our infographic, below.

Facts and Trends You Need to Know

By Daniel Dreaden

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, providing an opportunity for everyone to become familiar with the facts and prevention methods associated with this disease. Consider this: more than 3.8 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with breast cancer and it kills more than 42,000 people each year. How can we all work together to reduce the incidents of this disease in the years to come? 

Extensive research has been done to determine the actual factors that increase risk. (For more information on that research, see Factors That Affect Breast Cancer Risk at Susan G. Komen®.) Some of the risk factors that have been studied include: weight gain, race and ethnicity, inherited gene mutations, menopausal hormone therapy, and exercise.

Take some time this month to learn more, including reviewing and sharing our infographic below. Then consider donating to research efforts aimed at reducing the incidents of this disease.

Utilization and Value in the Wake of an FSER Boom

By Morgan Atkins

Over the last several years, freestanding emergency rooms (FSERs) have seen a boom in popularity. FSERs provide 24/7 emergency care and are physically separate from a hospital campus. The allure of these offsite emergency departments stems from their potential to increase access to healthcare resources. However, FSERs are falling under scrutiny for the lack of price transparency and their tendency to operate in more affluent, populated areas.

Florida's state health regulatory entity, the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), provides publicly available data on emergency room visits for the state of Florida. The AHCA data provides a field to differentiate which emergency visits occurred at a hospital-based ER and those at a FSER. Stratasan has analyzed the impact and utilization of FSERs to determine if they are providing a benefit to the communities they serve. Check out our infographic to find out what we learned.

How Long Will You Wait for Care?

By Dave Sellers

Emergency departments are responsible for about half of all hospital admissions, according to a RAND Corporation study. In fact, more people step into ERs every year, with visits hitting 136 million in 2015, up from 97 million in 1995, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Meanwhile, the number of emergency departments is down about 11% over that same time period. As a result, many people in need of emergency care are waiting longer to see a doctor.

Statistics and Trends for Healthcare Providers: What to Know and How to Help

By Dave Sellers

What is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?
(as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. Increased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis to be a public health emergency.

Our infographic shares statistics and trends resulting from this crisis and is based on <our all-payer claims data(APCD), highlighting the time period of Q3 2015 to Q2 2018. Many of these trends are both startling and very concerning. For instance, during this nearly three year time frame: