“To explore the prevalence of geographical variation in greater detail, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) made a research grant to Stanford health economics professor Laurence Baker. The focus was on elective treatments, including heart procedures, joint replacement, mastectomy, and vaginal birth after cesarean, where providing more information to patients could affect their decisionmaking around whether to opt for a certain treatment. His work revealed that rates of elective surgeries for a range of procedures in California varied widely depending on location, even after adjusting for areas with less-healthy populations, and noted that overuse is not always the issue; underuse can be a problem too.
“If gathering the data was the first step, making it useful was the second. Our goal was to present the research in a clear and compelling way to prompt policymakers and the medical community to question why their areas were outliers and take action to address these differences.”
To read the complete article, visit the Stanford Social Innovation Review website.
Sandra R. Hernández, MD, is president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation. Prior to joining CHCF, Sandra was CEO of The San Francisco Foundation, which she led for 16 years. She previously served as director of public health for the City and County of San Francisco. She also cochaired San Francisco’s Universal Healthcare Council, which designed Healthy San Francisco. It was the first time a local government in the US attempted to provide health care for all of its constituents. Read More
Steven Birenbaum is a senior communications officer focused on CHCF’s work to improve care for patients with complex chronic conditions, including older adults and people experiencing homelessness. As a grantmaker he sets strategy to strengthen and support non-profit journalism in California, overseeing grants to public media outlets, a data fellowship program and the daily news digest California Heathline. He also leads CHCF’s investments in podcasting. Steven was interviewed at the 2020 Knight Media Forum by PBS NewsHour Weekend’s Hari Sreenivasan about CHCF’s health care journalism grantmaking. Read More