Access to Care

Redefining How We Understand Health Access

For years, the Regional Health Commission (now CHCM) produced the Access to Care Data Book—a trusted, annual resource that tracked our region’s progress in strengthening the healthcare safety net. This report offered valuable insights into the capacity of our safety net system, the experiences of uninsured and underinsured patients, and the policies shaping access to care.

But access to care isn’t just about numbers—it’s about people.

a new approach

Centering Lived Experience

In partnership with the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC), we are reimagining how we understand and communicate about access. Instead of relying solely on charts and statistics, we’re embracing storytelling and experiential data—centering the voices of those most directly impacted by Missouri’s health and social systems

We believe that community members are the experts of their own experience. By uplifting their stories, we are better equipped to:

Advocate for policy changes that reflect real needs
Address social determinants of health
Improve outcomes and expand access statewide

What’s Next

While we’ve paused the traditional data book format, we are actively building a new model—one that highlights systemic barriers, amplifies real voices, and helps redefine what it means to achieve true health equity.

Stay tuned for updates as we shape this next phase of our work.

Related Data

For more context and information about previous Access to Care reports developed by the Regional Health Commission, check out the drop-down sections below.

Previous Access to Care Data Books

Geography Matters: The Impact of Regionality on Safety Net Access Trends in St. Louis

This issue brief acts as a supplement to data provided in the 2017 Access to Care report and focuses on geographic access trends among uninsured patients. Utilizing patients’ zip code of residence, this issue brief tracks the number of uninsured patients living in St. Louis City and County who were served by local safety net providers.

Decade Review of Health Status (2000-2010)

This review provides a comprehensive summary of leading health indicators and disparity metrics in St. Louis City and County from 2000-2010.

Which Organizations are Included in the Data found in the reports?

Community Health Data

Think Health St. Louis is a web-based source of population data and community health information. The RHC was a Founding Partner of the St. Louis Partnership for a Healthy Community that developed the Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. CHCM utilizes Census Data in conjunction with the Access to Care information collected for these reports.