The Connecticut Health Care Survey (CTHCS), a leading study of Connecticut residents’ own views on their health and health care, shows that many here have access to and receive consistent, high quality health care. However, much work remains to be done particularly as it relates to chronic disease prevalence among adults and children. The good news is that the survey offers a road map for health improvement in Connecticut and beyond!
BACKGROUND
Six health foundations in Connecticut sponsored the survey. The funders include: the Aetna Foundation; Connecticut Health Foundation; the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation of Connecticut; the Foundation for Community Health; Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut; and the Children’s Fund of Connecticut. We initially wrote about this Collaborative here. The study was conducted by the Office of Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The CTHCS is a statewide telephonic survey that was conducted between June 2012 and February 2013 in order to gather health data from Connecticut residents about themselves and about the children within their household. A total of 5,447 surveys were completed—4,608 regarding adults and 839 regarding children—with households from across Connecticut in urban, suburban and rural areas.
AND THE SURVEY SAYS
Four of the six funders chose to use survey data to commission policy briefs that focus on specific areas of interest and concern in health care.[1] Here are the four briefs.
Aetna Foundation: Executive Summary and Brief (new)
The Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the methodology and highlights of the key findings of the survey, including health insurance coverage, access and sources of care, continuity of care, health status, and patient-provider experiences. The Executive Summary was commissioned by the Aetna Foundation.
NEW: The full brief is now available “Patient Engagement and Provider Support of Chronic Disease Health Management.”
Children’s Fund of Connecticut: Children’s Experiences with Health Services: Results from the CTHCS
Children’s Fund of Connecticut’s policy brief examines children’s receipt of health services that are consistent with the medical home model of care. Findings show that with the exception of access to care, many children do not receive all of the services considered part of the medical home model.
Connecticut Health Foundation: Health Inequities in Connecticut and the Vital Role of the Safety Net
This policy brief examines how safety net insurance coverage and care providers increase health equity in CT. Our infographic provides visual representation of how the safety net advances health equity.
Universal Health Care Foundation: Access to Coverage and Care: Targeting Implementation of the Affordable Care Act to Improve Health in Connecticut
This policy brief delves into issues affecting and resulting from access to care.
A UNIQUE COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
Speaking as a collaborative group, the funders noted: “We are proud to present this work of four years to the state and to all parties to the health care system here. We hope it will be used as intended: to inform future health policy-makers, regulators, and other health foundations here and elsewhere to explore the opportunities highlighted by this survey and to measure changes driven by new policy and new law, including the Affordable Care Act.”
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN MORE
The Connecticut Health Funders Collaborative gathered on Wednesday, May 21 at 5:00 pm at WNPR’s Hartford studios for a discussion about the health of Connecticut’s residents. The forum included a reception and networking, followed by a town-hall style conversation, recorded for WNPR’s Where We Live, and hosted by John Dankosky, asking the question “How Healthy is Connecticut?”
The discussion included findings of the Connecticut Health Care Survey and the segment, which aired on May 27, can be found here. It will air again on June 24. For more information, please visit WNPR.org.
[1] While the survey and the resulting data were funded by the Collaborative as a whole, the policy briefs were developed and produced by each of those four funders.