Data for Monitoring the Health Care Safety Net

Book 2. A Data Book for States and Counties

By John Billings, J.D. and Robin M. Weinick, Ph.D.

A Joint Initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Health Resources and Services Administration

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In response to a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Health Resources and Services Administration are leading an effort to monitor the status of the health care safety net. This initiative consists of a broad range of local area measures related to safety net providers and the populations they serve (select for Fact Sheet).

One of the challenges in monitoring the Nation's health care safety net is that safety net services are provided in a myriad of different configurations, largely at the local level. As a result, two data books on the health care safety net include information at the county and metropolitan levels, focusing on 30 States and the District of Columbia. Book 2. Data for States and Counties presents data from all 1,818 counties in these States (nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties).

For data from 90 metropolitan areas in these 30 States and the District of Columbia, including 354 counties and 171 cities, go to Book 1—Data for Metropolitan Areas.

Select to download the print version of Book 2—Data for States and Counties (PDF File, 6 MB). PDF Help). An online query tool and electronic versions of the data are available.

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Contents

Safety Net Measures in this Data Book, their Definitions, and Data Sources

Book 2. Data for States and Counties

Introduction
Demand for Safety Net Services
Financial Support for Safety Net Services
Structure of the Safety Net—Inpatient Care
Structure of the Safety Net—Concentration and Distribution of Inpatient Uncompensated Care and Medicaid Discharges
Structure of the Safety Net—Ambulatory Care
Health Care Delivery System
Community Context—Population
Community Context—Race/Ethnicity
Community Context—Indices of Racial and Economic Separation
Community Context—Immigrant Population
Community Context—Economy
Community Context—Living Arrangements, Housing, Education, and Crime
Access-Related Outcome Measures—Preventable/Avoidable Hospitalizations (Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions)
Access-Related Outcome Measures—Births
Acknowledgments and Internet Citation

Return to Safety Net Monitoring

Current as of August 2003
AHRQ Publication No. 03-0026

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Internet Citation:

Billings J, Weinick RM. Book II. A Data Book for States and Counties: Monitoring the Health Care Safety Net. AHRQ Publication No. 03-0026, August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/data/safetynet/databooks/safetynet2.htm

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