Louisiana: Vizient Vulnerability Index findings

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

OVERALL

The patent-pending Vizient Vulnerability Index™ integrates data from various sources to provide deeper insights regarding community needs. It identifies nine social needs domains that become even more insightful when combined with Vizient's Clinical Data Base (CDB), a repository of patient outcomes data from over 1,100 Vizient member hospitals that includes more than 135 million distinct patients of all ages and payer groups. Click to learn more

Outside of a few zip codes in New Orleans, north of Lake Ponchartrain and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana has some of the highest vulnerability index values of any state in the country. A few specific patterns emerge in the domain data, as well as in the overall vulnerability index values. The zip codes that border Mississippi to the east and to a lesser extent Arkansas to the north, as well as those that touch the Mississippi River where it departs from the state line and the Red River in the northwest, are among the most vulnerable.

Note: Dark red indicates the most vulnerable areas while blue represents the least vulnerable

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

ECONOMIC DOMAIN

The economic domain comprises low median incomes, high rates of poverty and high unemployment. All three are significant factors across Louisiana, with particular hotspots in the more rural areas of the northern part of the state, as well as the Gulf coast. The lowest median incomes are around $20,000 per year. In the larger cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport, some neighborhoods have substantial economic vulnerabilities, where others have significantly higher incomes.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

EDUCATION DOMAIN

The education domain is led primarily by extremely low numbers of adults with college degrees, outside of the more urban areas. High school enrollment is unusually low in some areas, and preschool enrollment is quite low in much of the state.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

HealthCare Access DOMAIN

Provider shortages are common across the state outside of the more urban areas. Primary care providers and dental providers are in very short supply in large areas of the state, as are mental health care providers in all areas outside of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

Neighborhood Resources DOMAIN

There are widespread shortages in several neighborhood resources components outside of New Orleans and the Lake Ponchartrain area in general. Food deserts are common. Parts of the state have very poor broadband coverage, as well as very few households with subscriptions (less than half in some areas).

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

HOUSING DOMAIN

Housing domain vulnerabilities include a large proportion of the population spending more than 50% of their income on housing, especially in New Orleans and along the Mississippi River, but also in the northern half of the state along the Red River and around Shreveport and Natchitoches. Homes with incomplete plumbing are unusually common along the Mississippi River, especially to the north where it forms the border between Louisiana and Mississippi.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

CLEAN ENVIRONMENT DOMAIN

The clean environment domain reflects both drinking water quality issues, especially in the northern half of the state, and air quality along the southernmost part of the Mississippi River and along the border with Texas.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

SOCIAL DOMAIN

Social domain vulnerabilities include single-parent households, incarceration rates and disenfranchisement, each of which appear at very high rates in different areas of the state but most especially in New Orleans and along the Mississippi River.

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

TRANSPORTATION DOMAIN

Transportation domain vulnerabilities reflect households with no access to a car. Public transit is unavailable in most of the state, with the highest usage in New Orleans (rates up to 13%).

Vizient Vulnerability Index findings: Louisiana

public safety domain

Violent crime rates are relatively high and gun violence quite high across the state.