This book provides information on factors related to the health care safety net, including demand, financial support, structure and health system context, and community context. The preceding chapters in Part 1provide a synthesis and overview of the data, while Part 2 contains detailed tables for cities and counties in 90 metropolitan areas.
Additional data are available in Monitoring the Health Care Safety Net—Book 2. Data for States and Counties. The tables in that book focus on information for every county in 30 States and the District of Columbia. All the data included in these two books are available on the CD included with this book and in a variety of formats at http://www.ahrq.gov/data/safetynet/. One update of the data set is planned; details of this update will be posted on this Web site when they become available.
Also available online is a Safety Net Profile Tool, which offers easy access to all the data included in the Safety Net Monitoring Initiative. The Profile Tool will guide the user step-by-step in obtaining statistics and can be used to generate reports that compare multiple measures for one or more geographic areas. Finally, Book 3, Tools for Monitoring the Health Care Safety Net, provides guidance on a variety of topics related to monitoring local safety nets. As with Books 1 and 2, it is available free by calling the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse at (800) 358-9295; by mailing a request to the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907-8547; or by sending an E-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov. Please include the appropriate publication number(s):
| Book | Publication Number |
|---|---|
| 1: Data for Metropolitan Areas | AHRQ 03-0025 |
| 2: Data for States and Counties | AHRQ 03-0026 |
| 3: Tools for Monitoring the Health Care Safety Net | AHRQ 03-0027 |
All three publications are also available online.
The data presented in this book have not been shared directly with local policymakers to obtain feedback and may not reflect important changes that have occurred since the data were collected. The value of this report can only be assessed by its usefulness to communities. AHRQ welcomes feedback regarding the usefulness of the data and approach used here as well as the specific findings; please forward your comments to info@ahrq.gov.