By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford County Health Partners were excited to finally have a rough draft of the countywide community health assessment, but the group’s work is far from over.
Britney Ward of the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio presented the 135-page draft to the group Wednesday morning, which is made up of Crawford County Public Health, the Galion City Health Department, and other entities throughout the county. She explained that the next steps would be getting the data out to the public, which she said could be done with a community event and posting a PDF version of the assessment on various websites.
A community event would allow the public a chance to review the data and provide insight on what other data they would like to see. After receiving public feedback, Ward said the Health Partners would then need to choose priorities to work on as a community. Those action steps can be very specific for certain areas, Ward added.
The current draft of the health assessment does not yet include information from surveys done by Galion residents, though Ward said that will be added before the final packet is completed. The final version will have county data alongside comparisons from the Galion data.
The data for Crawford County is compared against data gathered in 2013 in Ohio and the U.S. In some areas, the county was on track while it underperformed in others. Some areas that Ward noted included roughly 1,300 county residents who usually visit the hospital emergency rooms for health care services and advice. The report also showed that 42 percent of respondents had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, a number that Ward had never seen that high.
Ten percent of respondents said they had used medication not prescribed to them or they took more than prescribed to feel good. That number increased to 19 percent for those individuals who had incomes of less than $25,000. About 90 percent of the medications came from primary care physicians. On the other hand, 16 percent of respondents took their unused medications to a medication collection program.
Five percent of adults, or 1,600 people, went to bed hungry at least one day per week because they could not afford food, the assessment revealed. That number increased to 19 percent with individuals with incomes of less than $25,000.
The assessment received a 39-percent response rate from the survey mailings. Though the survey was a random sampling of county residents, Ward pointed out that it would under-represent some areas, such as those who are homeless or drug addicts.
Edits and additional local data requested by the stakeholders will be submitted to Ward by March 11. A public meeting is expected to be held in April on a date to be determined.
RELATED CONTENT: Healthcare Partners need funds, ready to finalize questionnaire | Community Health Assessment survey discussed for county | County Health Partners begin planning process