Stafford Library: Healthcare Management Resource Guide: Internet Links

Mapping Sources

The resources below have mapping features and are also excellent resources on a wide variety of health care topics.

County Health Rankings
Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this website provides detailed information at the county level in four health factors: personal behavior, clinical care, socioeconomic factors, and the physical environment. It also reports health outcomes statistics.
Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice researches and reports on U.S. health care. Their customizable maps use Medicare data sets to create reports and maps on a variety of health topics.
State Health Facts
The Kaiser Family Foundation has an easy-to-use interface that produces maps or lists of state-level data on a wide variety of health data and demographics. Comparisons among states or between federal and state data are possible.
Commonwealth Fund
A private foundation devoted to promoting and improving health care for America's vulnerable populations. Their health system data center has an interactive map which compares state rankings on a number of quality benchmarks.

Health Quality and Comparative Effectiveness

American Hospital Association (AHA)
The AHA provides a wealth of information on U.S. hospitals including performance improvement, research, and advocacy.
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
A part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, “the Baldrige Program is the nation's public-private partnership dedicated to performance excellence.” One of its main focus areas is to "identify and share best management practices, principles, and strategies.” (Quotes are from the website itself.)
The Joint Commission
After registering, you are able to download performance measures for multiple quality measures in eight disease or condition areas. The site also allows you to search for Joint Commission accredited organizations.
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
This national nonprofit organization focuses on improving health care quality.
National Quality Forum (NQF)
A nonprofit organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting. It reviews, endorses, and recommends quality measures.
Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs)
This page from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ website provides information on, and links to, the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “The mission of the QIO Program is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and quality of services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries.” (Quote is from the website itself.)
Effective Health Care Program of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
As part of the AHRQ mission "to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans," the Effective Health Care Program produces research reviews, original research reports, and research summaries. (Quote is from the website itself.)
Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP)
This private nonprofit organization works to improve the process for developing reliable information about the costs, risks, and benefits of new medical technologies.
Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI)
The ECRI is a nonprofit organization which uses applied scientific research to evaluate medical procedures, processes, drugs, and devices toward the ultimate goal of improved patient care.
ASHRM: American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
The ASHRM "is a personal membership group of the American Hospital Association ... representing risk management, patient safety, insurance, law, finance and other related professions." (Quote is from the website itself.)

Electronic Health Records/Information Technology

HealthIT.gov
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) coordinates national efforts to implement advances in health information technology.
The ONC is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
This organization focuses on the use of information technology for the advancement of healthcare.
Electronic Health Record Research and Resources
This National Institutes of Health/NLM portal provides a PubMed search to related journal articles plus a lengthy list of health record information links.

Evaluation of Internet Sites

Remember to evaluate the information you find when searching the Internet. Not all Internet sites are trustworthy or appropriate to use as research sources. If you have any concerns about the credibility of an Internet site, consult your instructor or a librarian for evaluation assistance.

Tips for Evaluating Sources

Health Care Reform Resources from Government Websites

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Library of Congress-THOMAS)
Posted on the Library of Congress' THOMAS website is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: full text, a summary, amendments, related bills, and cost estimates.
Health Care: the White House
A section of the White House's website devoted to health care news and reform.
HealthCare.gov
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services manage this federal government website. Its mission is to provide information on the health coverage options under the Affordable Care Act for individuals and families so they can enroll in the best plan that meets their needs and to provide the same type of information for small businesses as they determine which option is best for their employees.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Provided through the NIH National Library of Medicine website, this portal on Health Care Reform, Health Economics, and Health Policy provides extensive links to reports, podcasts, data, key organizations, and more.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (Supreme Court Case)
The decision of the Supreme Court ruling that the individual health insurance mandate of the Affordable Care Act is constitutional.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Analysis of the Affordable Care Act done by the CBO, a nonpartisan governmental agency that analyzes "budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process." (Quote is from the CBO's website.)
State Legislation on Comprehensive Health Care Coverage
This report is from the Law Library of Congress website.
Report Summary: "As the national debate on health care continues, state laws provide small-scale models of legislation that might be implemented on a larger scale. This page provides an overview of related legislation in Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont as well as links to state codes." (Quote is from the website of the Law Library of Congress.)

Health Care Reform Sources from Nongovernmental Sites

Information from organizations and associations on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the nation's health reform law enacted in March 2010.

American Medical Association (AMA): Affordable Care Act Advocacy
News, articles, and related links from the AMA.
American Public Health Association: Health Reform
An introduction and numerous links to fact sheets, issue briefs, charts, websites, etc.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF): Health Equity
RWJF, a non-profit dedicated to improving health and health care of Americans.
Commonwealth Fund
Health reform topics from an organization whose mission "is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable .... The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy." (Quote is from the website itself.)
Alliance for Health Reform
Explore the resources on the page itself and check out the links at the top of the page: Briefings, Resources, Issues, etc. You have access to the ebook "Covering Health Issues" by clicking on the "Sourcebooks" link in the "Resources" tab. Chapter 1 is on health reform.
Healthcare Reform from the Medscape News
"Medscape from WebMD offers ... health professionals the Web's most robust and integrated medical information and educational tools. After a simple, 1-time, free registration, Medscape from WebMD automatically delivers to you a personalized specialty site that best fits your registration profile." (Quote is from the website itself.)
Stateline
At this website, you can limit to the issue of health and to a particular state of the U.S..
"Stateline is an editorially independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy." (Quote is from the website itself.)

The Health Workforce

Health Professional Shortage Areas
The Health Resources and Services Administration provides a search feature for geographic areas, demographic groups, or health care institutions that have shortages of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers.
Medically Underserved Areas
The Health Resources and Services Administration provides a search feature to identify federally designated areas or populations that have too few primary care providers, along with risk factors such as high infant mortality, high poverty, or large elderly populations.