Summary: The Importance Of Access To Health Care

At some point in life, every individual in the U.S. will need access to healthcare. Each of these individuals seeking care may expect excellent access, quality, and efficiency of health care, however that may not always be the case. State Scorecards evaluate state and hospital performances to determine what improvements can be made to better serve the population. Scorecards provide insight on healthcare access, prevention & treatment, availability to patients & costs, and healthy lives in a certain area (McCarthey, Radley, & Hayes, 2015). There are strengths and weakness in all public health systems and there is always a need for enhancement. Two states that will be evaluated are South Dakota and Minnesota. According to McCarthy, Radley, & Hayes (2015), the state of South Dakota is ranked 15th overall in health care systems, while Minnesota is ranked 1st overall. …show more content…
Therefore, South Dakota does well at preventing hospital readmissions among patients and individuals in the community. Out of 1,000 individuals on Medicare, only 149 individuals went to the emergency department for a preventable reason, which ranks South Dakota 3rd in the country (McCarthey, Radley, & Hayes, 2015). This puts SD above average in this category. Minnesota ranks 20th with 175 individuals with Medicare who have avoidable emergency department visits (McCarthey, Radley, & Hayes, 2015). A weakness in South Dakota is healthy lives, which is ranked 29th overall (McCarthey, Radley, & Hayes, 2015). Therefore, individuals in South Dakota may live less healthy lifestyles than those of other