West Virginia Primary Care Provider Shortages, Certified Clinic Locations, and Blood Pressure Medication Nonadherence

Impact Statement

This map is important for many state and local entities such as government agencies, clinics, hospitals, county commissions, and other public health stakeholders. When these types of organizations are submitting grant applications and planning for the future of health care in West Virginia, this map can aide in showing the areas with the highest needs and encourage further discussion into why those areas are in more need.

1. West Virginia Primary Care Provider Shortages, Certified Clinic Locations, and Blood Pressure Medication Nonadherence

View Larger

The main message is to visually illustrate HPSA score distribution, FQHC and RHC distribution, and areas with highest burden of blood pressure medication nonadherence among Medicare Beneficiaries, ages 65+. Areas with the largest degree of primary care provider shortages are represented by the dark green. Most of these areas are clustered together. In southern West Virginia, many dark green counties also have the highest rates of blood pressure medication nonadherence. While there appear to be many FQHC and RHC locations in some of these counties the population to provider ratio is still considered to be a high level of provider shortage. . FQHCs and RHCs are often staffed by the same provider staff and have varying hours/days at the different clinic sites.

ArcGIS Pro

US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Data Warehouse on Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), and primary care Health Professional Shortage Area Designations (HPSAs) from July 2021. Blood pressure medication nonadherence among Medicare Beneficiaries, ages 65+ from the ESRI Living Atlas.

Point shape files were used to upload facility locations and HPSA scores. National FQHC and RHC locations were linked to West Virginia counties. Primary care HPSA scores were pulled from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) database and linked to West Virginia counties. Medicare blood pressure medication nonadherence data from the Living Atlas was also linked to West Virginia Counties. Blood pressure medication nonadherence data was categorized using quintiles. The three middle categories were combined to highlight the lowest and highest values present in the data. HPSA scores were categorized using quantiles.

This map can be used as a tool for health care resource planning in West Virginia by hospitals, clinics, private practices, local, state, and federal government agencies, and other public health

Heather Tolley, Epidemiologist
West Virginia State Department of Health
heather.n.tolley@wv.gov

Heather Tolley, West Virginia State Department of Health. Accessed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Chronic Disease GIS Exchange https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/gisx/mapgallery/WV_HPSA.html