Don't Get Sick in Greenville!

[BullGoodBearBad]

I worked on the vidant readmit study. Most of the patients were from well beyond eastern nc.

[Richard Martin]

A huge part of the problem here is that none of you bothered to read the actual article that was posted on 247wallst.com. If you had you would have known that this article isn't specifically about Vidant in Greenville. This article rates the hospitalS (plural) in the Greenville metro area. While it can be safely assumed that the authors of this article included Vidant Greenville in their ratings, they don't state what other hospitals in the Greenville metro area are also included. Also, this rating only rates MAJOR metro area hospitals. I'm not sure how Greenville got included since it's not a major metro area by the US Census definition.

I would also like to see the entire list of hospitals that they rated.

They also included data that I don't think has anything to do with the quality of care that a person can expect. This is one of the categories that they included:

Lastly, we used the share of hospitalizations for conditions that could have been treated with outpatient or ambulatory care — often referred to as the unnecessary hospitalization rate. Included in this measure is hospitalization for conditions such as asthma, dehydration, or hypertension.

It is well known that a significant portion of the 1.3 million people in the Greenville area will be visiting the hospital for every tooth ache and stubbed toe that they get.

[LLN]

Do these negative comments take the teaching aspect of the hospital into account?.

I "thought" Greenville, and by that, I suppose, Vidant, was well thought of.

[ponytale]

ECU tracks relative health data for Eastern North Carolina and there is evidence that overall morbidity and incidence of disease are higher in this part of the state. It is discussed throughout their healthcare curriculum, and they publish their data regularly.

This website lists ENC incidence rates for most major causes of death, and how it compares to the rest of the state:
29-County Eastern North Carolina Compared to the Rest of the State, 2011 | Center for Health Systems Research & Development | East Carolina University

When looking at the overall health of Eastern North Carolinians, "If the 29-county Eastern North Carolina region were a state, it would rank 45th; above Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia. If the rest of North Carolina (71 counties) were considered alone, it would rank 30th, with a rate most similar to Florida's." Adding in all 41 counties east of 95 does not change our overall rank. While there are likely pockets of this level of morbidity throughout the state, Eastern North Carolina has a widespread health challenge.

[HP91]

Originally Posted by ponytale

ECU tracks relative health data for Eastern North Carolina and there is evidence that overall morbidity and incidence of disease are higher in this part of the state. It is discussed throughout their healthcare curriculum, and they publish their data regularly.

This website lists ENC incidence rates for most major causes of death, and how it compares to the rest of the state:
29-County Eastern North Carolina Compared to the Rest of the State, 2011 | Center for Health Systems Research & Development | East Carolina University

When looking at the overall health of Eastern North Carolinians, "If the 29-county Eastern North Carolina region were a state, it would rank 45th; above Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia. If the rest of North Carolina (71 counties) were considered alone, it would rank 30th, with a rate most similar to Florida's." Adding in all 41 counties east of 95 does not change our overall rank. While there are likely pockets of this level of morbidity throughout the state, Eastern North Carolina has a widespread health challenge.

So, of course, we say the specialists, hospital, etc...are the problem. Not the demographics served.

[PiratePanther189]

Originally Posted by ponytale

ECU tracks relative health data for Eastern North Carolina and there is evidence that overall morbidity and incidence of disease are higher in this part of the state. It is discussed throughout their healthcare curriculum, and they publish their data regularly.

This website lists ENC incidence rates for most major causes of death, and how it compares to the rest of the state:
29-County Eastern North Carolina Compared to the Rest of the State, 2011 | Center for Health Systems Research & Development | East Carolina University

When looking at the overall health of Eastern North Carolinians, "If the 29-county Eastern North Carolina region were a state, it would rank 45th; above Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia. If the rest of North Carolina (71 counties) were considered alone, it would rank 30th, with a rate most similar to Florida's." Adding in all 41 counties east of 95 does not change our overall rank. While there are likely pockets of this level of morbidity throughout the state, Eastern North Carolina has a widespread health challenge.

Thank You, this is something I tried to get across before but didn't obviously do a very good job of. ECU actually teaches this to their future doctors, nurses, public health, etc. folks.

A huge part of Eastern NC residents go like this:

Don't have health insurance -> Don't go to hospital or dentist for 6-month/yearly care -> Get sick -> Go to Vidant or one of Vidant's Urgent Cares then get referred to Vidant -> Doctor diagnoses 12 other things on top of what they're there for because they haven't been to the doctor. Could be cancer, could be infectious diseases, anything, but either way it hasn't been cared for and therefore has a higher chance of causing serious illness (inpatient care) or death.

Now, Obamacare is giving many of these folks health care for free (after deduction). Will they use it? We will see.