Health Care Professional Needs
Hurricane Katrina had an adverse impact on the health care system in Louisiana in 2005, paralyzing operations in healthcare facilities in areas such as New Orleans and Slidell city. It also significantly decimated access to quality care, particularly for the uninsured individuals and the low-income earners. Despite efforts by the State of Louisiana to expand Medicaid and provide new options for coverage, the health care system in the state has not yet recovered from Hurricane Katrina, enough to cater for the health care needs of over four million individuals.
Louisiana has been ranked significantly below the country’s ranking of the state population health. According to the United Health Care Foundations report, the state has been ranked fiftieth in 2017, and this is a clear reflection of the growing need for health care professionals in the state including cities like Slidell (United Health Care Foundation, 2015). Several statistics also support why the health care system in the United States needs to focus its efforts in the state, for example, the significantly higher prevalence of heart diseases and HIV/AIDS, as reported by the Centres for Disease Prevention (CDC).
A relatively higher drug-related mortality also characterizes the city of Slidell, and this calls for preventive interventions as facilitated by the state and other health care organizations. Also according to CDC statistics, the rate of teen pregnancy in Louisiana is still significantly high above the country’ average levels at sixty 6.9 per cent compared to the average 5.7 per cent in the United States. Louisiana also has the fourth-highest cancer death rates in the United States standing at approximately 190 deaths for every 100000 individuals. From the statistics above, we can conclude that Louisiana is without a doubt in urgent need of health care facilities and health initiatives that will improve the health care situation in the state.
References
United Health Care Foundation, America’s Health Rankings (2015), http://www.americashealthrankings.org/.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports (NVSR) Volume 64, Number 2, Table 19, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf.