Fresno, Kern, San Joaquin Counties Among 10 U.S. Counties With Highest Community Needs, Report Says

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 3 23:38:48 PDT 2005


Fresno, Kern, San Joaquin Counties Among 10 U.S. Counties With Highest
Community Needs, Report Says

Source: California Healthline (http://www.californiahealthline.org) 
Date: March 16, 2005


Fresno, Kern and San Joaquin counties are among 10 U.S. counties with
populations higher than 500,000 that have the worst combination of indicators
known to contribute to health disparities, according to a report released this
week, the Stockton Record reports.

For the report, researchers from San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West
developed the community-need index, a scale that evaluates a county based on
income, culture, language, education, insurance and housing -- factors that are
known to contribute to health disparities, the Record reports.

Residents of counties with the highest CNI scores were twice as likely to
experience preventable hospitalization for manageable conditions -- such as ear
infections, pneumonia or congestive heart failure -- as communities with the
lowest CNI scores. The score also indicates health care disparities among
geographic regions and a specific community's acute needs.

According to the Record, a county's CNI score "provides compelling evidence for
addressing socio-economic barriers when considering health policy and local
health planning." Health care organizations, not-for-profit agencies and policy
makers intend to use the index "to identify and address barriers to health care
access," according to the Record.


Reaction
Kaveh Safavi -- chief medical officer for Solucient, a health information
company that helped CHW develop the index -- said, "It really is just a
description of the burden in that community because of the low level of
socio-economic status. Those populations typically use more than the average
amount of hospital services."

San Joaquin County Health Director Ken Cohen had not yet seen the report but
said, "There's no doubt that San Joaquin County and the rest of the Central
Valley face significant health care challenges."

Catholic Healthcare West President and CEO Lloyd Dean said that the index would
allow the provider "to target our preventive health care services where they
are most likely to improve people's health" (Goldeen, Stockton Record, 3/11).
The report is available online. 

For more information, please visit: 
http://www.californiahealthline.org/index.cfm?Action=dspItem&itemID=109646



Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service 
UC-Irvine


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