How Healthy Are U.S. Hospitals?

How Healthy Are U.S. Hospitals?

If we said that 20% of any industry was at financial risk, we would all be up in arms. However, a recent Morgan Stanley report citing that statistic was met with some degree of yawning. The report cites that 450 hospitals are at risk of closure and another 600 are…

How Long Should You Wait in the Emergency Room?

How Long Should You Wait in the Emergency Room?

We recently had a health scare where a family member spent over 12 hours in the emergency room. While she was not thrilled to spend so much time there, she did ultimately get good medical care. So what is excessive time in the emergency room?   Centers for Medicare &…

Will Voter Unpredictability Continue in 2018?

Will Voter Unpredictability Continue in 2018?

Much has been written about the increased polarization of America and its collective impact on communities. There were many surprises in the 2016 election and people are bracing for a potentially tumultuous 2018 mid-term election. Ohio, where I live, is one of the swing states. The average county in Ohio…

Free-Lance Economy Continues Upward Climb

Free-Lance Economy Continues Upward Climb

Moonlighting used to be a term that described a minority of people. If you moonlighted, you were supplementing your income. You either did it for extra cash or because you had to just to pay the bills. The freelance economy and the growth of the personal transportation industry alone have…

Hot Growth Industries

Hot Growth Industries

The building boom is officially back after a long hiatus. The number of construction employees increased 5% in 2016 according to the most recent County Business Patterns released by the U.S. Census.  The sector however with the most number of new establishments is the Information sector (NAICS 51) which increased 5%….

What do Sierra Vista and Hinesville Have in Common?

What do Sierra Vista and Hinesville Have in Common?

Sierra Vista, AZ and Hinesville, GA probably don’t seem to have much in common. One is in eastern Arizona and the other is in southeast Georgia. They are both very small cities with populations of around 40,000. What they have in common is a market concentration for computer occupations with…

Where the Vets Live

Where the Vets Live

As we approach this Memorial Day Weekend, we pause to remember the sacrifice made on our behalf by our veterans. Nationwide veterans comprise 8% of the population. But there are clusters of populations where veterans comprise much higher percentages of the population. This article from Trulia published in Forbes back…

EVICTED – The Impact of Housing Affordability

EVICTED – The Impact of Housing Affordability

I was in the Bay Area this week for a health technology conference at Stanford University. I took Lyft back and forth from where I was staying. While conversing with one driver in my rudimentary Spanish, I found out that his family was spending $3,000 a month for a two…

The Aging of Housing in America

The Aging of Housing in America

They are building three new homes across from my house here in Northeast Ohio. It seems we are past the time of the severe slowdown of housing starts and there has been a mini-housing resurgence. Home inventory levels remain low. The problem is, like my new neighbors, new housing tends…

Spring is Here! Which Counties are Physically Active

Spring is Here! Which Counties are Physically Active

I love spring!  As a warm weather person living in the Northeast, I can’t wait to get outside and be physically active. While many are like me, still 29% of the U.S. remains by and large physically inactive and it is very regionally concentrated. The County Health Rankings uses a measure…

Violence Against Women Offenses Up 9.5%

This is the third year that the Campus Safety and Security (CSS) data has released separate violence against women (VAW) offenses. This data captures three types of offenses; domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and analyzes it for both on campus and off campus locations. Overall, there were 16,183 VAW…

CMS Releases 2016 Opioid Prescription Data

CMS Releases 2016 Opioid Prescription Data

This week, CMS released 2016 Opioid Part D Prescribing Rates data which follows on the heels of the original release several months ago. This data release includes Opioid prescriber, claims, and extended release claims at the national, state, county, and zip code level. We have updated our Opioid Prescribing Rates…