Barton to take pulse of community as a whole
Barton Health and other community organizations and businesses are joining forces to give South Lake Tahoe and its surrounding areas a “complete physical”.
The process, known as a Community Health Needs Assessment, consists of gathering information about the health status of residents on three levels: in-depth discussion groups; an area-wide telephone survey; and collection of state, county and national health data.
Lake Tahoe News in October 2011 first wrote about the assessment, which is now about to start. This month, the project will identify major health risks, disease incidence and service needs of residents of South Lake Tahoe and its surrounding communities.
Beginning in March, 400 20-minute phone interviews will take place with adults ages 18 and older in English and Spanish.
Barton will hold focus groups and work alongside community agencies to gather additional elemental data for the health assessment.
Full results from the CHNA will be available to the public by late summer. Barton will have the information posted online as well as have a town hall meeting to share the results and action plan.
Couldn’t Barton figure out the health and needs of the community better by somehow going through their own hospital and clinic records and see what folks are being treated for and complaining of? There’s GOT to be a computer algorithm for that.
400 random phone calls will only yield what people who actually answer call from folks they don’t know will be willing to say. What people say they need or do is frequently different from the truth.
do not go through my records unless you want a lawyer to visit you.
It sounds like some progress is being made in South Lake Tahoe. Nice to see
real transparency including full disclosure of the program in this article. No more bait and switch of any wireless networks to invade privacy rights. Now the only thing this area needs are for the census takers to reappear and gather information from persons who had the misfortune of living in areas that weren’t included in the 2010 census due to inappropriate zoning issues. 500 or so people shouldn’t make a big difference or would it?
I think the diagnosis will be: the community suffers from high cost of health care in the basin, because the health care facilities up here can charge what they want, even if it’s not in the communities best interest.
Symptoms will be: community members avoid Barton at all cost, to avoid getting exorbitant bills!
Plan of Care: Look deep into management salaries, trim the fat, and do what’s right to become a caring facility, with an improved image. Compare prices with facilities within a 50 mile radius, adjust accordingly. How do other hospitals/treatment facilities treat self pays? Adjust to the norm of care. Being at the lake does not create any special environment, that should encourage charging more, or not giving as good a discount as other small town hospitals, that is gouging, and earns disrespect.