Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1475102
33 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT 5 states with highest, lowest percent of maternity deserts By Marissa Plescia A lmost 35 percent of counties in the U.S. — or 1,094 — are maternity deserts, according to an interactive map by March of Dimes. This represents more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age who live in these counties that have no hospital with obstetric care, no birth center and no obstetric provider. Deloitte Consulting and Deloitte Health Equity Institute supported March of Dimes with the creation of the interactive. It was released in March and is updated on a regular basis. The data is from several commercially available consumer marketing data sets and data from the CDC and U.S. Census. Five states with highest percent of maternity care desert counties: 1. North Dakota: 77.36 percent 2. Nebraska: 65.59 percent 3. South Dakota: 60.61 percent 4. Alaska: 58.62 percent 5. Nevada: 52.94 percent Five states with lowest percent of maternity care desert counties: 1. New York: 3.23 percent 2. Maryland: 4.17 percent 3. Vermont: 7.14 percent 4. Pennsylvania: 7.46 percent 5. California: 8.62 percent n Cedars-Sinai taps physician as new chief health equity officer By Kelly Gooch C hristina Harris, MD, was named vice president and chief health equity officer of Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Harris, a primary care physician, comes to Cedars-Sinai from UCLA, where she served as associate program director in the school's internal medicine residency program and as associate vice chair of equity, diversity and inclusion for the UCLA Department of Medicine. In her new role, she will focus on promoting health equity, addressing health disparities and fostering wellness across the organization and the communities it serves, according to a May 23 news release. Dr. Harris succeeds Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, who is retiring. "Dr. Harris is the ideal leader to build on the exceptional foundation laid by Dr. Burnes Bolton," Thomas Priselac, Cedars-Sinai president and CEO, said in the release. "Dr. Harris combines a profound personal and professional commitment to health equity with deep experience leading clinical, educational and equity initiatives in aca- demic medicine." n America's 25 unhealthiest communities, per US News By Kelly Gooch A Nebraska county is at the bottom of U.S. News & World Report and CVS Health's 2022 "Healthiest Communities Rankings" released June 22. e rankings, are based on examination of about 3,000 communities across 89 health and health-related metrics in 10 categories. e categories range from population health to infrastructure. Within the environment category, the latest fih annual edition of the rank- ings for the first time incorporates new data to reflect the risk of a community for negative effects from natural disasters. e top 500 communities made the list. e bottom 25 healthiest communities: 1. Madison County, Neb. 2. Buffalo County, Wis. 3. Platte County, Wyo. 4. Weber County, Utah 5. Henry County, Ill. 6. Kandiyohi County, Minn. 7. Northampton County, Pa. 8. Adams County, Pa. 9. St. Mary's County, Md. 10. Mono County, Calif. 11. Polk County, Wis. 12. McLean County, Ill. 13. Will County, Ill. 14. Waupaca County, Wis. 15. Stearns County, Minn. 16. Williamsburg, Va. 17. Washington County, Ill. 18. Queen Anne's County, Md. 19. Yamhill County, Ore. 20. New London County, Conn. 21. Benzie County, Mich. 22. Jefferson County, Wash. 23. Davison County, S.D. 24. Union County, Ore. 25. Adams County, Neb. n