Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115138

Candace Williamson, MPP, Melissa Lupella, MPH, and Julie M. Barlage, BA. Navigant Consulting, 175 W. Jackson, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60604, 312-583-6840, cwilliamson@navigantconsulting.com

This presentation will describe the difficulties we encountered in collecting reliable data on provider location and practice patterns as a part of health care studies conducted for several states. We will highlight shortcoming of existing data, discuss how we supplemented the data and provide recommendations to states about how to build on existing data sources.

Reliable data on health care provider locations and practice patterns is essential for evidence-based health care planning, policy development and evaluation; however, most states do not currently have up-to-date pictures of practice patterns in their state. This data is necessary for assessing the population's access to care, planning new health care initiatives and evaluating the impact of past initiatives.

We will describe our data-gathering process and discuss the content and shortcomings of existing data sources, including Medicare and Medicaid claims data, state licensing data and professional society membership data. None of the available provider sources has information on whether professionals are practicing full- or part-time. Specific to rural areas, reliable information is lacking on whether providers are practicing in more than one town or providing outreach services to other communities. To overcome these data shortcomings, input from local healthcare professionals and community members is required, which can be expensive and time consuming. As a result of these limitations, states should consider developing and maintaining centralized databases that contain an up-to-date count of providers and their practice patterns. We believe that this information is essential to the state's health care planning efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• List existing data sources for provider location and practice patterns
• Identify barriers to collecting reliable data
• Appreciate the need for centralized data collection and storage

Keywords: Planning, Data Collection

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Employment.