2012.02.02
A survey of Roanoke’s health
Carilion Clinic is taking the lead in doing a community health survey of Roanoke.
The goal is to develop a clear picture of not only the health needs of the city, but also the existing assets.
To do this, Carilion has developed a 24-question survey that asks questions about an individuals access to medical, dental and mental health care. The survey also asks questions about chronic illness, insurance and basic demographic information. (Follow link to take the survey)
This is just the first part in a year-long effort to gauge the health of the community and identify potential areas to target improvements.
Over the next few months Carilion hopes to gather a minimum of 2,000 completed surveys, said Shirley Holland, Carilion vice president of strategic development and the project director.
Carilion received an $80,000 federal grant to conduct the assessment.
The last time a health needs assessment for Roanoke was conducted was in 2000.
I read your column in Saturday’s paper about Medicare Advantage Plans. I’m in my 2nd year with Southeast Community Care. It has really been a great plan – no cost, no co-pay for primary care, dental, vision, RX, and monthly OTC meds at no cost. Sounds almost too good to be true. But I heard that Humana bought Southeast in December (no communications yet from either). Could you verify this and see, if so, what plans Humana has to change coverage.
Comment by david — February 4, 2012 @ 8:17 am
@Sarah – is this a scientific survey or just for “fun?” It seems a bit unorthodox to just have people respond willy-nilly? Does Carilion already have the exact results it already wants to know? hmmmmm….
Comment by John Murphy — February 4, 2012 @ 3:05 pm
@david Thanks for the question. You are right about the acquisition. Southeast Community Care is part of Arcadian Health and in August, Humana and Arcadian announced the acquisition. http://www.arcadianhealth.com/arcadian-management-acquired-by-humana.html
As for changes to plans, those are all carefully monitored by CMS. Like with many plans, there may have been some changes going into this coming year, but those should have been apparent when you reviewed the information for the plan.
Comment by Sarah Jones — February 6, 2012 @ 9:32 am
@sarah. John brings up a good point regarding the validation of the survey results. Surveys can be fairly accurate, but it requires a great deal of defined protocols to ensure how a researcher selects participants is just as important as how many participate. Researchers often draw conclusions about a target group using information gathered from a small representative sample of that group. Representative samples must be selected carefully and without bias. In statistical terms, a random event is one that occurs with a certain, measurable chance or probability of happening. Nonrandom samples include those that select members of the population based on their proximity, availability or through referrals by friends. There are sometimes scientific reasons to conduct non-random surveys, but they are often unscientific and should not be used to generalize statistically to larger populations.
Comment by Randall Walters — February 6, 2012 @ 10:10 am
@Randall and @John. Thanks for your questions. I’m sorry my response took a while, but I wanted to make sure I got information from the people in charge of the survey. The information below is from Shirley Holland:
“The community health assessment consists of several ways information regarding the community’s needs are collected and assessed, both qualitative and quantitative. As you are aware, focus groups of stakeholders have been held, and focus groups of the targeted population are being planned. The on-line survey referred to in the questions is not a scientific survey but a way to collect as much community input as possible. A review of secondary indicators is also being conducted as part of the assessment. These are health statistics about our community’s health status, as developed and/or reported by the Virginia Department of Health, the Council of Community services, U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Disease Control and other entities. These stats will compare the most recent data available to previous years regarding preventive care, prenatal health, chronic disease, risk factors, economic factors affecting health, and demographic factors affecting the need for health services in our community. We believe the combination of these methods and results will give us a thorough understanding of the needs and lay the ground work for working with the community to develop solutions.”
Comment by Sarah Jones — February 7, 2012 @ 9:31 am
I’m pretty sure the “needs” of healthcare across every community can be summed up in three points: cost, quality, and access. While there might be the challenge of matching demand-side and supply-side healthcare in rural markets, keep in mind this is consistent with systems nationally that demonstrate repeatedly that healthcare delivery systems are not very efficient. While this needs assessment might spotlight a few underserved disciplines, I’m not swayed it truly lays the groundwork for working with the community to develop solutions. Roanoke, Virginia, does not need to reinvent the wheel. It needs to look at best practices across the country and figure out how to better deliver and implement such practices here. At one time, that seemed to be the basis of the clinic model, but any impact certainly has not been transformational and, unfortunately, any data derived from a community assessment isn’t going to change that.
Comment by Randall Walters — February 7, 2012 @ 3:05 pm