Iowa, by some measures, seems like a great place to have a baby. It ranks eighth for overall care in United Health Foundation’s new study of women and children’s health care, which looks at things like birth weight and a mother and child’s neighborhood to assign scores.
Except there’s something else you probably want to know before having a baby in Iowa: The state ranks 22nd for infant care, which is dramatically lower than its rank of seventh for women’s health care. (To calculate a state’s overall rank, the study individually ranked the health care of women, children, and infants.)
It’s well-known that there is huge variation in health care quality among states. But this new study shows that evenwithin states, the quality of care in seemingly related areas can vary significantly, too.
“One thing that came as a surprise was inconsistency in between states as opposed to just across states,” said Dr. Ana Fuentevilla, chief medical officer of UnitedHealth Community & State. “Clearly in a state like Mississippi, all three populations studied were challenged, but if you pick another state, this just isn’t the case.”
[For more of this story, written by Sarah Frostenson, http://www.vox.com/science-and...-infants-discrepancy]
Comments (0)