Health Tracking
The Center for Studying Health System Change Looks at a Volatile Health Care Environment
Field of Work: Effects of changes in the health system
Problem Synopsis: By the end of the 20th century, the nation's health care system was in flux and its future was uncertain. Yet, existing information provided only a sketchy view of the past and limited and outdated information about the present, with no capacity to document future trends.
Synopsis of the Work: The Center for Studying Health System Change, the core component of RWJF's Health Tracking initiative, conducted seven rounds of site visits to 12 diverse communities, six rounds of household surveys, and five rounds of physician surveys for the purpose of documenting and analyzing how changes in the health care system played out for patients, doctors, and communities.
The Center's focus is on providing policy-makers with timely, accurate information on which to base future health care policy.
Key Results: Attributing tangible policy changes to an initiative dedicated to providing timely information is difficult. However, there is widespread agreement that the Center's body of work has contributed significantly to the nation's responses to changes in the health care system.
The Center's work regarding the proliferation of specialty hospitals and its studies of access to care by Medicaid recipients have been credited with informing changes in federal legislation and have earned the Center awards and citations.
Center staff members have produced hundreds of journal articles, briefs, and reports.
Related Websites
Recommended Reading
- Financial and Health Burdens of Chronic Conditions Grow
- Community Tracking Study, Community Reports
- Designing Effective Health Care Quality Transparency Initiatives
- A Snapshot of U.S. Physicians: Key Findings From the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey
- Health Care Quality Transparency: If You Build It, Will Patients Come?
- The Economic Recession