My name is Mike Connery. I’m the web editor for a nonprofit called The Opportunity Agenda. This week, as part of our Health Equity program, we rolled out a new tool that I think you'll find very interesting.
http://www.healthcarethatworks.org/maps/nyc/
The tool is a Google Map mash-up designed to visually illustrate the economic and racial disparities that exist in New York City's health care system, and drive all New Yorker's of conscience to take action by emailing their elected officials.
The website takes data on NYC hospital closures between 1985 and 2007, and overlays it on an interactive city-wide map that can display either the racial or economic demographics of the Five Boroughs during three periods: 1985, 1995, and 2005. Using this tool, visitors can visually see how hospital closures disproportionately impact poor neighborhoods and communities of color (particularly vivid in Central Brooklyn). Text on the sidebar guides the user through each decade and demographic overlay, explaining the changing conditions of the city and the impact that closures have on underserved communities.
But the site is more than just a visual resource, it is also a data-rich resource for researchers that contains a variety of reports and fact sheets (as well as data on the patient demographics, payer source, and quality scores for each hospital), a community forum for health care advocates and New Yorkers, and an activism tool that encourages New Yorkers to write to their elected officials in support of creating a health care system that works equally for all. All data on the site is from the census bureau, the New York State Department of Health, and the New York State Planning and Research Cooperative System. The data were analyzed by Darrel Gaskin of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
The Opportunity Agenda, in partnership with a coalition of NYC health care advocates, assembled this map in response to the activities of The Berger Commission (aka the hospital closures commission), whose recommendations are now sitting on Gov. Spitzer's desk. You can find more info on the Berger Commission here
When we talk about health care policy in America, very rarely do we mention the roles that class and race play in determining our access to and the quality of health care that we receive. We hope that this website can spark conversations and change that.
I encourage you to take a look.
Michael Connery
Web Editor
The Opportunity Agenda
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The State of Health Care in New York City
My name is Ronald Towns and I am also a representative of The Opportunity Agenda, the above-mentioned organization that published the Google Maps on disparities in health care access by race and socio-economic status. The data used to produce these maps was also used to write our health care equity report, "Dangerous and Unlawful: Why Our Health Care System Is Failing New York Communities and How to Fix It " Not only does the report provide additional statistical and qualitative evidence that illustrate disparities in access, but it gives a series of policy recommendations for reforming the system. We have polled New York City residents in order to get their views on the state of health care in their communities. The results of that poll can be found here. In the poll, we found that 77% of New Yorkers agree that hospital closures would be bad for New York's health care system.
As an organization, we have supported an effort in Central Brooklyn to assess community needs with regards to heatlh care and advocate for a a health care model that works for the community. We have produced a video that demonstrates the health care needs of Central Brooklyn that be watched at:
target="_blank">. Please feel free to offer any advice and/or commentary that you may have.
Ronald Towns
Opportunity Agenda