Iowa Report Overview

It’s a new day in health care. Issues surrounding access to care, technology and financing have introduced an era of transparency and accountability. Physicians and hospitals of Iowa are striving to measure clinical process and report findings to the public. This first annual Report of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative on Quality, Patient Safety and Value demonstrates that commitment.

The Iowa Report presents information from several sources: publicly reported, national research databases, and hospital self-evaluation of deployment of new standards of care. It demonstrates the excellent quality of care provided here and our commitment to improving health care for Iowa’s future.

Addressing health care challenges is the right thing to do, but isn’t easy. Some liken changing clinical process in a system operating at full capacity to changing the engines of a plane in flight. Iowa providers face a combination of issues that make responding to change even more complex:

• Iowa has a geographically dispersed and aged population. It is often less efficient to practice medicine in areas where population is less dense. Solutions that work in urban areas often don’t work in rural care networks. We are challenged to bring healthcare solutions that provide access to care for all Iowans and are cost effective.
• Access to specialty physicians is limited. Iowa ranks between the 40th and 50th percentiles nationally in the number of physicians per capita in most medical specialties. Iowa is 49th in physicians per capita overall. Our delivery system will be severely challenged in the next decade as the physician supply declines.
• Iowa reimbursement is among the lowest in the nation for both physicians and hospitals. This is actually the result of years of efficiency on the part of the Iowa health care system. Low reimbursement limits our ability to make infrastructure change or update physical plants. Worse, it challenges our ability to provide access to care and our ability to meet Iowa’s future health care needs.

Despite these challenges, Iowa providers are working hard to address the new day. The Iowa Healthcare Collaborative is a provider-led initiative that brings together providers, payers, purchasers and consumers in a unique alliance. It is designed to achieve rapid cycle improvement in our Iowa healthcare arena. We believe we can reduce the cost of care delivery, raise the quality and safety of the care provided and improve access to care for our patients. This unique structure has been called a model for other states to achieve engagement and to improve the health of the public.

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