Hospital Highlights 4/7/11

Whitman County Health Ranks Third

Whitman County ranked third among the state’s 39 counties in a county-by-county health survey released late last week. San Juan County has the healthiest residents and Ferry County the least healthy, according to the survey by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study looked at three major categories of data; Health Outcomes, Health Factors and Programs and Policies.

For Health Outcomes, the researchers considered morbidity and mortality rates. They concluded, for example, that residents of Ferry County are nearly three times as likely to die a premature death compared with those in San Juan County. Researchers also assessed the rate of people dying before age 75, the percentage of people who report being in fair or poor health, the numbers of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health, and the rate of infants with low birth weight.

Among the many Health Factors the researchers looked at were rates of smoking and obesity, excessive drinking and teenage births.

They also considered Programs and Policies and economic issues that impact healthcare such as the number of uninsured adults, the availability of primary care providers, education levels, the number of children living in poverty, access to healthy foods and air pollution levels.

The top 10 healthiest counties in Washington were San Juan, Kittitas, Whitman, Island, King, Whatcom, Chelan, Douglas, Clark and Franklin. Those with the poorest health according to the report are Ferry, Wahkiakum, Okanogan, Asotin, Mason, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor and Yakima.

Complete results for every USA county are available at http://www.countyhealthrankings.org.

David E. Womack, CEO

Whitman Hospital & Medical Center