TOP CITIES FOR ACCESS TO PEDIATRIC CARE

Many cities in California and Texas have poor patient-reported pediatric care, according to a new 2017 Vitals Access to Pediatricians report. Vitals researched the top 200 American cities to find out which metros have access to the best and worst pediatric care.

The study also revealed that mid-sized cities scored better in categories such as access and quality. Aurora, Illinois ranked #1 on the list, followed by Madison, Wisconsin at #2, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, #3.

When creating the list of America’s Top Cities for Access to Pediatric Care, Vitals analyzed the number of pediatricians available in each city on a per-capita basis for their under-18 population. Patient-reported metrics such as ease of getting an appointment, pediatrician ratings, and wait times were also factored into the final rankings.

California and Texas each had 8 of the bottom 20 cities in the rankings. Many of the cities ranked in the bottom had under-18 populations higher than the national average of 24.7 percent.

Under-18 Patient to Pediatrician Ratio

TOP CITIES

City State # Children Ped# Per Capita for Children
Cincinnati Ohio 65751 1442 45.60
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 49852 977 51.03
St. Louis Missouri 67504 1270 53.15
Orange California 32893 574 57.30
Miami Florida 76848 1326 57.95

 

BOTTOM CITIES

City State # Children Ped# Per Capita for Children
Laredo Texas 86850 57 1523.68
North Las Vegas Nevada 71693 42 1706.98
Grand Prairie Texas 55928 32 1747.76
Ontario California 50585 22 2299.32
Santa Clarita California 47053 6 7842.10

Wait time also affected the overall ranking of pediatricians. Pediatricians in the top cities kept wait times under 13 minutes (the lowest wait time being close to 10 minutes). The national average is 18 minutes, 35. Patients from cities at the bottom of the list reported wait times that stretched over 30 minutes. Five Texan cities and three Californian cities were among the bottom cities.

“When a child is ill, the primary concern for parents is getting quick access to quality care,” said Mitch Rothschild, Founder and Executive Chairman of Vitals. “Vitals not only helps consumers find top-rated pediatricians near their homes, but also make informed decisions, relying on the wisdom of others who’ve contributed to the 9 million patient ratings and reviews on the site.”

The cities ranked highest on America’s Top Cities for Access to Pediatric Care include:

City State Rank
Aurora Illinois 1
Madison Wisconsin 2
Grand Rapids Michigan 3
Minneapolis Minnesota 4
Rochester New York 5
Saint Paul Minnesota 5
Cleveland Ohio 7
Salt Lake City Utah 8
Cincinnati Ohio 9
Akron Ohio 10

To see the full list of city rankings, visit Vitals Official Website.

About Vitals

Vitals empowers everyone to shop for their health care like an expert. We bring together cost and quality transparency along with innovative consumer engagement programs to help people select high-quality, lower-cost care. Vitals leads the market with incentive and engagement programs that pay people to shop. Our solutions achieve measurable and sustainable savings for consumers, employers and health plans. Vitals helps more than 120 million people each year access better, more affordable care.

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