Seniors health care makes gains

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.

Health care for Nevada Medicare recipients has improved in recent years, but the state still ranked in the bottom third in a nationwide study of the quality of care given to the nation's elderly and disabled, according to a report released last week.

Nevada ranked 36th in the 1998-1999 federal study and 35th in the 2000-2001 study.

The report compared Medicare patients' experiences in treatment for heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, pneumonia, breast cancer and diabetes.

The study looked at factors such as whether patients were given aspirin or other drugs within 24 hours of arriving at a hospital after a suspected heart attack and whether patients were screened for flu or pneumonia or given vaccinations when they visited hospitals or clinics.

The report was published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was released locally by HealthInsight, a private nonprofit company paid $7 million a year by the federal government to help hospitals and clinics improve care for Medicare patients in Nevada and Utah.

Of the 24 categories examined in the study, Nevada rated at or above the national median in only nine.

"There is a lot of room for improvement," said Tom Jackson, HealthInsight's vice president of operations.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, manager of the Clark County Senior Advocate Program, said she was not familiar with the report but felt being ranked 35th in the nation is "not that good."

"We need to try a little harder," she said.

But when you look at the details, Jackson said, the study results "are kind of mixed" for Nevadans.

"The results on the hospitals were very good. ... But we didn't do as well as we had hoped in the outpatient setting," Jackson said.

For example, Medicare hospital patients received pneumonia screenings or vaccines 46 percent of the time in Nevada in 2000-2001, compared with 11 percent in 1998-1999 and 24 percent nationwide in 2000-2001.

But when receiving outpatient services, Nevada Medicare patients were given flu vaccinations 62 percent of the time in 2000-2001, a drop of 1 percentage point from 1998-1999, and 10 points less than the 2000-2001 national median.

Despite the low overall ranking, Jackson said the figures show Nevada's hospitals and clinics are improving.

Nevada showed improvement in its scores in 16 of the 24 categories. The biggest jump came in the percentage of Medicare recipients receiving pneumonia screenings or vaccinations as inpatients.

Pamela Rutherford, director of operations for the Nevada Hospital Association, a trade group, said the reports show that Nevada's health care industry recognizes the need to improve the quality of health care provided.

"Even though we may fall in the bottom third, it's because the nation is improving too. We're improving as a whole," Rutherford said.

New Hampshire ranked first in both studies.