A local healthcare provider wanted to serve its community by implementing initiatives established by Healthy People 2010, a national objective designed to identify significant preventable threats to health. The local healthcare provider needed an accurate way to transform individual health records into information relating to health imbalances in the communities it serves. Explore how geographic information systems (GIS) analysis can help this client focus its resources.

The Problem
Infant mortality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana hovered at an unacceptably high rate of 15 to 20 per 1000 for the period 1996 to 2001. This rate was also much higher in African American neighborhoods. The Healthy People 2010 federal initiative requires communities to address such racial imbalances and drop infant mortality rates (IMR) to 4.5 per 1000. In order to reduce the IMR, specific neighborhoods need to be identified so that health resources can be targeted effectively.

The Approach
Linked infant death and birth certificates were address matched within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The resulting rate surface was contoured for the city, and statistical analysis was used to identify hotspots of infant mortality. The resulting maps consisted of contours of high infant mortality rates (IMR) and contours of statistically significant hot spots of infant mortality, all layered onto air photos of Baton Rouge. A further spatial layer displaying zip code boundaries was added to identify which areas would become the base of the service region.

The Results
Several areas were identified, specifically by address zip codes, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as having severe infant mortality problems. The healthcare provider used the information and insights gathered from this study to obtain a Healthy Start grant to fund a team of nurses and social workers, along with all support staff and required infrastructure, to address the problem of infant health in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

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