HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-10-2007-11~~th
To: Board of County Commissioners
From: Rosemary Summers, Health Director
Re: 2007 Community Health Assessment
North Carolina Publie Heclth
ORANGE COUNTY
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Rosemary L. Summers,
MPH, DrPH
Health Director
Richard E. Whiffed Human
Services Center
300 West Tryon Street
Post Office Box 8181
Hillsborough, NC 27278
Phone: (919) 245-2411
Fax: (919) 644-3007
www. co. oranoe. nc. us/health
Central Administrative
Services
Dental Health Services
Environmental Health
Services
Health Promotion and
Education Services
Personal Health Services
300 West Tryon Street
Hillsborough, NC 27278
PH: (919) 245-2411
FAX: (919) 644-3007
Date: Apri14, 2007
The Health Department is required by the North Carolina Division of Public
Health to conduct a comprehensive community health assessment every four
years. Orange County's assessment is due December 1, 2007. The assessment
plays a big part in the accreditation process for local health departments as well
and Orange County Health Department is scheduled for its first accreditation
process in the spring of 2008.
A comprehensive community health assessment consists of analysis of
secondary data as well as the collection and analysis of primary data for areas of
particular interest for the community as a whole. Most secondary data is
reported as state level statistics and only rarely contains specific local data. The
Health Department has elected to participate in the CDC's Behavioral Factor
Risk Surveillance Survey (BFRSS) on an annual basis as one means. of
gathering specific local data. This survey is conducted by the State Center for
Health Statistics with a random sample of 400 Orange County households. This
provides us with a picture over time about specific health behaviors of our
population.
As part of the Community Health Assessment for 2007 the Health Department
will also be conducting a random sample survey of 210 households in Orange
County in the month of April. This survey will provide a snapshot of current
concerns and issues specific to the residents in our county. The questions have
been formulated to gain information about health related concerns that are not
already contained in other data or information that we have available to us.
Subcommittee members that have been working on analyzing the secondary
data have submitted the questions for this targeted survey. University faculty
and students have assisted with the questionnaire design and the randomization
of household selection.
Health Department staff and volunteers from a variety of organizations and
agencies will be conducting the survey on two weekends in April. We will be
using our new GIS hand held computers to collect the survey. The survey
process will also serve as an exercise of our emergency preparedness as these
units would be used for extensive community surveys if a widespread outbreak
were present in Orange County.
Survey days are:
Friday April 13 and Saturday April 14 Based in Chapel Hiil
Friday April 20 and Saturday April 21 Based in Hillsborough
The schedule will be 8-5 each day with a 2-hour training period in the morning
and then survey collection for the remainder of each day. Teams of two will be
sent to specified addresses based on census block tracts across the county.
Page 2
Community Assessment Memo
April 4, 2007
The information from each field unit will be downloaded to a laptop and the resulting data will
become a part of the overall community assessment document that will be drafted this summer.
The final stages this fall will consist of a priority setting process for the development of action
plans for selected high priority issue areas.
If you wish more information on the survey or on the assessment itself, please contact either
Donna King, 245-2449 or Rosemary Summers, 245-2411. We have also attached a copy of the
annual "State of the County Health Report" that was prepared this past December. Copies of the
report are also available in either the Clerk's office or at the health department.