Indiana Healthcare Report

In a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Indiana has improved its overall health care quality performance from weak to average.

These annual State Snapshots are based on data from more than 30 sources, including government surveys, health care facilities and health care organizations and the report provides state-specific health care quality information, including strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

Ratings of "very weak" to "very strong" were given on these measures:

• Overall health care quality
• Types of care (preventive, acute and chronic)
• Settings of care (hospitals, ambulatory care, nursing home and home health)
• Five clinical conditions
• Clinical preventive services

The report ranked Indiana the strongest in:

• Care for adults on Medicare managed care
• Percentage of adults on Medicare managed care who always got an appointment for routine health care in the last 12 months
• Diagnosing advanced stage breast cancer
• Percentage of short-stay nursing home residents with delirium

Some of the state's weakest measures included:

• Percentage of diabetic adults over age 40 who had a retinal eye examination in the past year
• Number of low birth-weight infant deaths per 1,000 live births less than 1,500 grams and between 1,500 to 2,499 grams
• Percentage of long-stay nursing home residents whose ability to move about worsened
• Increase in the percent of long-stay nursing home residents with increased need for help with daily activities

All states had its share of problems and areas for improvement, but it is good that we have improved from last year.