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Help me understand what are the dominant health systems that provide healthcare in North Carolina, and what percent of the state they cover
Hi! Thank you for your question regarding the dominant health care systems in North Carolina.
From my research there are at least 12 healthcare systems in North Carolina which operate three or more hospitals. Of these, the three systems that reach the largest portion of the state's population are UNC Health Care (32% of the population), Novant (25%), and Carolinas Healthcare (20%).
Below is a detailed summary of how I've arrived at these figures, the percent population reach for all 12 systems, and short summaries for top three systems. There is also a map featuring the 75 hospitals with plot points color coded by hospital system.
METHODOLOGY
In looking at the various hospital systems in North Carolina, I discovered that each system presents data in various manners. Some provide the number of their patient interactions. Others may state the population serviced for one or more of their hospitals. A few of the systems have hospitals in other states such as Carolinas Healthcare and Novant and the figures they advertise do not make state distinctions.
Without a unified method to analyse hospital system coverage, I decided to develop a means of estimating each hospital's coverage based on county and state populations. This method is based on the assumption that a hospital's primary coverage consists of the population within the county in which it is located.
I began by identifying major health care systems using the North Carolina Hospital Association directory. I crossed referenced the addresses here with hospital system websites to build a spreadsheet of 12 North Carolina hospital systems with three or more general hospitals. (I did not include specialty facilities such as rehabilitation or psychiatric hospitals as they tend to overlap population area.) This data was then used to populate a customized Google Map. The map markers are color coded by hospital system and so provides a visual of where the various systems are located in the state.
I went back and looked up the county in which each hospital is located based on its city. Some city limits cross into multiple counties and in those instances both counties are included. I copied the information into a new tab (labeled "County info minus duplicats") so as to delete lines consisting of duplicate counties withing the same hospital system. The county population data is from the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent population estimates (2015) of North Carolina counties. The population percentages are based on the 2015 total estimated state population: 10,042,802. The pivot table on the "System County Population" tab provides the total number of the county populations covered by each hospital system as well as the percentage of the total state population each system covers.
RESULTS
The spreadsheet data resulted in the following estimates for the percent of the state's population each system services:
UNC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
The largest reaching healthcare system in North Carolina is state owned, non-profit UNC Health Care. It includes the UNC School of Medicine along with affiliated hospitals and physician clinics across the state.
CAROLINAS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM (CHS)
The non-profit Carolinas Healthcare System is one of the leading healthcare organizations in the Southeast United States. It owns or manages 39 hospitals in the Carolinas and has 940 care locations. In 2015, its facilities estimated 12.5 million patient encounters.
Although the above figures are for both North and South Carolina, the Carolines Healthcare System operates predominantly in North Carolina, with 31 of its 39 hospitals in the state. You will notice that only 11 hospitals are listed in the Carolinas Health Care system on the map and spreadsheet. This is because on their annual report CHS includes specialty hospitals not on spreadsheet as well as affiliated hospitals. CHS has a management service agreement with Cone Health facilities which maintain its independently owned status as well as governing Board of Trustees.
NOVANT HEALTH
Novant Health is a non-profit health care system consisting of 15 medical centers and more than 530 healthcare locations throughout North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. The system receives around 515,000 emergency rooms visits as well as more than 4 million physician visits. This is not broken down specifically for North Carolina, although the bulk of Novant Health facilities are located in the state.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
There may be more factors to consider when looking at a healthcare system's coverage area. In rural areas a hospital may easily serve more than just the county in which it is located. Several of these systems may stretch their coverage area as well if they have affiliated clinical offices in other areas. Then there is the issue of hospital partnerships and affiliations. For example, Carolinas Healthcare and Duke Health, have strong affiliations with Cone Health and Duke LifePoint, respectively, so that they may fall in the same system for certain situations but are separate in ownership and/or management.
Although these other factors may need to be considered, I hope the information provided in this report proves to be a good starting point for your research.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. Thanks for using Wonder!