By Jeff Atwater

NEW YORK, October 10, 2019 – The overall quality of health care system outcomes in Lakeland, FL, is the fifth-worst in the nation reports financial website 247wallst.com.  24/7 Wall St. has created an index of three measures (30-day hospital readmission rate, mortality within 30 days of hospitalization and preventable hospitalizations) at the metro area level to identify cities with the worst health care system outcomes.  Click HERE to read the full article.

5. Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
> 30-day hospital readmission rate: 16.6%
> Mortality within 30 days of hospitalization: 13.4%
> Preventable hospitalizations: 69.6 per 1,000 Medicare enrollees
> No. of physicians: 49.2 per 100,000
> Median household income: $51,670

For every 1,000 people enrolled in Medicare in the Lakeland metro area, there are about 70 hospitalizations for conditions that could or should have been treated in an outpatient facility. This suggests a possible over-reliance on hospitals in the metro area and also potentially a lower than typical quality of care in some outpatient facilities in the metro area.

Also, in Lakeland, those who are hospitalized are more likely to be readmitted within a month of discharge than those discharged from hospitals in the vast majority of other metro areas nationwide. Though unplanned readmissions are not always the fault of the hospital, they can be caused by such conditions as a surgical wound infection. In Lakeland, 16.6% of people discharged from hospitals are readmitted within 30 days, the 10th highest share among U.S. metro areas.

25 Cities Where You Don’t Want to Get Sick

1. Jonesboro, AR
2. Rocky Mount, NC
3. Merced, CA
4. Wheeling, WV
5. Lakeland, FL
6. Vineland, NJ
7. Hattiesburg, MS
8. Pine Bluff, AR
9. Jackson, TN
10. Parkersburg-Vienna, WV
11. Dubuque, IA
12. Carbondale-Marion, IL
13. Albany, GA
14. Bowling Green, KY
15. Ocala, FL
16. Johnstown, PA
17. Port St. Lucie, FL
18. Monroe, MI
19. Longview, TX
20. Hanford-Corcoran, CA
21. Burlington, NC
22. Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
23. Goldsboro, NC
24. Beckley, WV
25. Mobile, AL

METHODOLOGY

Click HERE for 24/7’s methodology.

This article originally appeared in the Orlando Advocate.

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