Statewide, Iowa — A new report has ranked Iowa’s health care system 17th in the nation overall — down from 4th in early 2020. The Commonwealth Fund’s State Health System Performance scorecard added seven data points specifically related to COVID-19 and Iowa’s health system ranks 22nd among the states in pandemic-related measures.
It shows between August of 2020 and March of 2022, Iowa’s ICUs were at more than 80 percent capacity. David Radley is the lead researcher on the report.
Radley says one thing that stuck out to him was the number of days it took to vaccinate 70 percent of Iowans age 12 and up.
The report rates health systems in Hawaii and Massachusetts at the top for response to COVID. Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia were at the bottom of the rankings.
