Study shows geography affects health care

NEW YORK According to a study performed by colleagues at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, geography plays a factor in health care patients receive, as reported by MSNBC.

“We’ve found that geography is often destiny,” says James Weinstein, director of the institute, where this field of study was pioneered. “It’s not that the rates of disease are different; it’s the way they’re treated that’s different—from prevention to diagnosis to long-term care.”

The study showed that the best overall healthcare is achieved in the Northeast region, where patients go and receive more medical care and as a result practice more preventive medicine that steers them away from costly trips to the hospital and from chronic diseases. The Midwest and Southern regions were found to have morbidly obese rates and crowded hospitals as a lot of people in the regions do not have health insurance. The West region was found not to practice preventive care as much, compared to the rest of the country, but that patients were well-treated in hospital care.