"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Continuing to Build a Culture of Health in Allegany County

The numbers are in for the State of Maryland on the overall health status for Allegany County for 2013.  In the eight individual categories, we improved in two (health behaviors and physical environments); dropped one place in clinical care; and stayed the same in health outcomes, length of life, quality of life and health factors.  We saw improvement in low birth weight babies, poor mental health days, adult smoking, adult obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections, number of uninsured, the number of primary care physicians and dentists, preventable hospital stays, more attending college, less unemployment and less children in single-parent households.  We declined in six areas and only slightly in each: excessive drinking is up by a percent, diabetic screenings have declined by 1%, mammography screening by 1%, children in poverty by 1%, a slight increase in air pollution and a very slight increase in violent crime that still falls far short of the state average.  Obviously, a lot of work is needed to continue to improve our overall health status for Allegany County, but we continue to head in the right direction year after year.

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