The Commonwealth Fund website allows reviewing various interactive maps that target important concerns of healthcare. There are maps that offer data on access to services as well as the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare programs. It seems appropriate to focus on the Health Care Quality-Spending map since the US is the country that spends a lot of funds for its citizens’ health. In spite of significant efforts, the quality of care remains insufficient (Monsen et al., 2015). Both south and southeast of the map are alarming as the relation of spending to quality is the worst in these regions. The state I practice in is Florida, and it has 21 percent higher spending and 6 percent lower quality compared to the median indicators. The state of one of my classmates is Texas with 20 percent higher spending and 7 percent lower quality (“Health care quality-spending interactive,” n.d.).
This situation may be explained by the difference in the quality of hospitals in these states as Texas has better percentage. Another socioeconomic and political factor is greater reliance of Florida on Medicare, while Texas is marked by employer-sponsored insurance as well. As for cultural and ethical issues surrounding the data, they are not evident. The reviewed map allows nurses to understand the states’ spending-quality ratio and consider it in planning further interventions on quality improvement. The given map makes it clear that southern states require more spending, but the result is not successful, which dictates adjusting current practices and policies.
References
Health care quality-spending interactive. (n.d.). Web.
Monsen, K. A., Peterson, J. J., Mathiason, M. A., Kim, E., Lee, S., Chi, C. L., & Pieczkiewicz, D. S. (2015). Data visualization techniques to showcase nursing care quality. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 33(10), 417-426.