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CHARTing Health Information

This LibGuide has been designed to provide a comprehensive collection of links to publicly available health and health determinants data. While the emphasis is on the state of Texas, there are links to sites that cover all of the U.S.

Access to Health Care

Find a Federally Qualified Health Centers (U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration; current data)

Texas Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Statistics and Related Links (TX Health & Human Services Commission)

Health Insurance (US Census Bureau; State level)

Federal Aid to States (US Census Bureau, 2010; State level; PDF)

Texas Health Institute undertook a study to develop feasible public policy solutions
that, when combined together, could cut the number of Texans without health
coverage almost in half. Using the most recent estimates of uninsured per county,
the study also examines the corresponding economic and fiscal impact of increasing
the number of Texans with health coverage. The report, “A Vision for Change: Policy
Solutions for Increasing Health Coverage in Texas”, provides policymakers and stake-
holders at all levels a selection of cost-effective and workable policy solutions
to deploy when solving the issue facing more than 5.6 million Texans."

Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health in Texas (Task Force on Access to Health Care in Texas)
"Texas faces an impending crisis regarding the health of its population, which will profoundly influence the state’s competitive position nationally and globally... In the state, 25.1 percent of the population is without health insurance, the highest in the nation and growing. The increasing discrepancy between growing health needs and access to affordable health insurance coverage creates the conditions for a “perfect storm.”
In view of these serious challenges, ten academic health institutions created a Task Force on these issues. Task Force members also included small and large business employees, health care providers, insurers and consumers....."

Medicare Enrollment Reports (US HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; dates vary; county and state level data)
Covers both aged and disabled by county. Scroll down for county data.

H-CUPnet (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
"HCUPnet is a free, on-line query system based on data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). It provides access to health statistics and information on hospital stays at the national, regional, and State level."

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Research, Statistics, Data & Systems

Hospital Compare                                                                                                                                                                                        

Hospital Compare offers information on the quality and cost of care provided at Medicare-certified hospitals in the United States. The information provided on the Web site includes patient experience, whether the hospital provides timely and effective care, complications that have occurred after surgical procedures at the hospital, use of medical imaging, and readmission and death rates. Hospital Compare reports an summary star rating for patient experience based on the eleven HCAHPS (CAHPS Hospital Survey) measures. The Web site also has information on how hospital payments for heart attack patients, heart failure patients, and pneumonia patients compare to the national average. Hospital performance data is presented using bar graphs, numeric data and descriptive information.

The Leapfrog Group
Compare hospitals for patient safety and safety of selected procedures. The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America’s health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded.

HealthGrades (HealthGrades)
Find doctor, hospital, and nursing home ratings.

Quality Check (Joint Commission)
The Joint Commission has had a longstanding commitment to providing meaningful information about the comparative performance of accredited organizations to the public. In 1994, The Joint Commission first published organization-specific Performance Reports. In 1996, Quality Check®, a directory of Joint Commission accredited organizations and performance reports, became available on the website.

The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care (Dartmouth (US) Medical School; dates vary but most current is 2003; hospital level data)

  • Data By Region
  • Data by Hospital
  • Data by Topic
  • Key Issues
  • Includes: Medicare Spending, Supply-Sensitive Care, Preference-Sensitive Care, Effective Care, Physician Workforce, End-of-Life Care, Racial Disparities, Accountable Care, Reflections on Variations, and International
  • Publications
    Includes: Atlases & Reports, and Research Articles

Reports on HMO Performance by Region (Texas Health Care Information Council; 1998 to 2004; regional level data)
Learn more about the performance of your HMO with these reports.

Supply & Distribution of Health Professionals in Texas (TX Department of State Health Services; 2008)
The tables found here INCLUDE ONLY persons who are licensed with their Texas board and are actively working in their profession. Retired, inactive, or working out-of-state professionals are not included.

Health Professional Shortage Areas Database (U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration; current data; Census tract and county level data)
This database has the most current data containing information on those areas that are designated as having a health professional shortage. Data is listed by date of HPSA designation. The TDSHS reports (below) provide basic data for the entire county; this tool provides data for Census tracts where appropriate. Shortages of three professions are recognized by this program: primary medical care M.D.s and D.O.s, dentists, mental health professionals. Generally, there are three major components of the federal HPSA criteria: 1) Rational service area; 2) Population-to-physician ratio; and 3) Accessibility of populations to primary care resources in surrounding areas.

MUA/MUP (Medically Underserved Areas & Medically Underserved Populations) Database (US Health Resources & Services Administration; Census tract level)
Medically Underserved status is designated to areas or populations having a shortage of personal health services according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' rules.

  • Areas (MUAs). Eligibility for designation as an MUA is based on the demographics of the entire population in an area compared to national statistics for four health care demand/resource indicators:
    • Percentage of elderly population (over 65 years)
    • Poverty rate
    • Infant mortality rate
    • Ratio of primary care physicians per 1,000 population
    • These four indicators are converted to weighted values. The sum of the four weighted values equals the Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) score. Areas with IMU scores equal to or less than the national average IMU (62.0) are designated as underserved.
  • Populations (MUPs). MUP IMU scores are calculated in the same manner as for MUAs. However, the specific population for whom the MUP is calculated represents only a portion of the area's entire population. These specific populations encounter barriers to primary care access. The barriers may be economic (e.g., low income or Medicaid-eligible populations, low income population) or sociologic (cultural, linguis
  • Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) & Medically Underserved Populations (MUPs)
    This site provides just a simple list of each Texas county with its MUA/MUP designation.

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Last updated 11/20/2023