Hillsboro County
Introduction
The county of Hillsboro is a safe haven. This is because it is one of the best places in the locality for bringing up children. The county enjoys state of economic and social strength. The residents of the county are well informed about what happens in the world. However, the broadcasting stations in the county focus majorly on the local issues and activities affecting the county. The families staying in this county are diverse and this contributes to the beauty and complexity of Hillsboro County. This assignment explains the primary health needs and issues facing Hillsboro County. Moreover, the assignment gives population and demographic of the county.
Health Care Needs and Issues Facing Hillsboro
Health care is one of the most important factors in any locality. The county of Hillsboro has a well-organized plan for provision of health care services to the residents. There is a health care department. This department is referred to as the Hillsboro County Health Department. The mandate of the department is to provide health care services all over the county. It is managed by a chairperson with the help of County Board of Healthy. The personnel managing the health services of the county are usually contracted for a five-year term which is renewable once. A part from the management team, the county also employs other very important personnel in the health sector such as the registered nurses, individuals with expertise in public health docket, nutritionists and public health assistant.
The main objective of the department of health in this county is equal distribution of finances to local health agencies, ensuring environmental health and hygiene, immunization off citizens and implanting the health priorities of the county. This department must also leas with the statewide data system in gathering most important statistics on mortality before sending them to the state. While giving the yearly report, the Hillsboro County Health Department is obligated to provide data.
According to statistics, Hillsboro is majorly affected by diseases such as STIs, cancer and HIV/AIDs. The number of cases of sexually transmitted infection is fairly constant between the years 2009 and 2004. In the year 2004, no cancer cases were reported. However, as we come to the close of 2014 quite a good number of persons were reported to have various forms of cancer such as colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, lung cancer et cetera.
On the contrary, cases of HIV/AIDs have a different trend to that of cancer and STIs. Generally, the rate of active HIV infection across all the age brackets have a constant decline.
Demographic and Population Analysis
The town of Jasper has recorded the highest population increase rates. The town had its population increase in the past 10 years from 42,657 to 49,247 registering 15% population increment. The rate of population increase in the county is fairly below this. The actual population increase rate in the county is about 7.5%. This is actually half the rate observed in Jasper. Over the past 10 and 5 years the community of Minor town has registered the lowest population increment. The community has had a population decrease in the past 10 years. Its rate of increase is negative.
In the next five years, it is expected that the population of the county to have increased by 7.5 percent. That is to say, from 141,435 to 151,042 people. The effects of this will be highly felt in all spheres of life within the town. As the population increases, most resources are strained and thus living conditions become horrible. Moreover, social evils increase in the county, thus an expectation of increased cases of diseases such as STIs. This will have the overall effect of poor health conditions thus reduced population in the future.
The age profile of Hillsboro County has great resemblance to that of the United States of America. Both the US and Hillsboro county have fair increase in population from the age zero to about 64 years of age. Upon reaching 64 years, the population starts to decrease. The persons making the highest part of the population are people in the age bracket between 25 and 44. This is a working population, thus are able to produce resources that can drive and feed the nation. This clearly shows that there is low dependency ratio in the County and the country as well. The population of children and the aged, that is, persons above 65 years depend on the working persons for their sustenance. The youngest town is the Statesville having the highest number of the younger population. On the other hand, the oldest town is Minortown with highest number of the older population (Passel, Jeffrey, February 11, 2008).
The above findings on the population have great impacts on the delivery of the health services in the county. Usually, the most affected persons in a population are the old and the young. This is because they are the most vulnerable to diseases and infections since they do not have strong immunity as compared to the middle age. The effect of this is that lots of health services have to provide to this population of the susceptible. The county however, has low population of the young and old thus no many funds are needed for their care.
Nursing Home Need Study
It is indisputable that County of Hillsboro needs a nursing home. With an occupancy rate of 94%, there are about 6 percent of old persons who really need the services provided at the nursing home. It must be realized that the working population usually have limited time to care for the old. The best they can do is to employ the services of house helps. The house girls however, lack the expertise needed to care for this important people in the county. This therefore, calls for the need to have nursing homes that will always care for the aged.
The number of beds in the nursing homes does not suffice the space intended in Hillsboro County. As for now, the county needs few additional bed spaces to cover up for the insufficiency. However, by 2020 the County will have to increase its bed capacity with a percentage since the population increase every annum is about 7.5 percent even for the aged. Increased bed space will help achieve the 2020 goal of increasing health services access by the aged to 100%. The greatest thing the government can do to the nursing homes is to improve their bed capacity. Moreover, it will be of great benefit to improve the quality of the services being offered in the nursing homes. These will help to reduce the mortality rate among the population. Moreover, cases of sickness among the old will also reduce thus less finances will be spent in caring for the old. This are the greatest gifts the government can give the old population in the county
Health priorities
Devolving funds in towns
High population increase in the town of Jasper is an indication of a healthy population. This also indicates a high rate of births. Therefore, the county should devolve lots of funds to this town. The funds should focus on providing good health services to the children and creating more bed space to the aged to ensure sustainable health conditions. The Minor town on the other hand experience low population increase and indicator of probable low dependency ratio (Passel, Jeffrey, February 11, 2008).
Planning ahead
Since population of the county is expected to explode the next few years the county has a duty of doing proper budget and plans for this expected increment. Funds should be budgeted for according to the ratio of the expected increase. Failure to do this planning would see the county fall into a pit of poor health and high mortality.
Planning according to demographic profile
Using the demographic profile funds should be allocated with special focus on the percentage of the old and the children. This is because they are the most vulnerable when it comes to provision of health care services. This would help in reduction of mortality rate and maintenance of good health in the county. This would go a long way in increasing production of food in the County.
Consideration of the age of town
The ‘old town’ will require to be given greatest consideration as well. This is due to the fact that highest population of the aged lives in this town as the young an energetic go to seek means of lively hood in young upcoming towns. The health services in this town ought to be improved to ensure good living conditions for its population. The new towns on the other hand can really suffer due to poor planning. The county should thus do proper planning for this town to avoid losing its citizens due to health related conditions.
Improving health services
The focus of the county governance should be that of improving the health services. This objective would help the county to reduce its mortality rates. Moreover, this would help improve the standards of living as the economic status of people also improves. The nursing homes will have a population of the aged who are easy to take care of since diseases such arthritis and HIV/AIDs would be on a declining end.
Hospital Comparison
Question 1
The hospital utilization has been on a declining trend since 2004 to 2014. In 2004 the total number of patients registered was 105,264. This value reduced to 91,186 in 2009 and 88,414 in 2014. In the next ten years the value is expected to reduce further. The decrement is due improvements in states of health in the county. More awareness on the factors that make individuals susceptible to certain forms of diseases also has immense contribution to the reduction. The length of stay in the hospital is fairly long since the number of patients discharged is low relative the ones admitted. (Aizenman, N.C., August 13, 2008).
The year 2014 country wide hospital utilization is extremely overwhelming. The total number of the operating beds for that year was 76 for Webster hospital and 240 for MCH. The lowest number of patients received was 126 and 90 respectively. This is an indication of greatly outstretched resources in the hospitals that year. The town of Boalsburg had the lowest record of patients. On average, Middleboro had the highest number of patients that year followed loosely by Jasper. The number of patients in MCH is also seen to be relatively high compared to Webster hospital. The number of patients per town is dependent on the number of people in that specific town and partly due to the age of the town. Nonspecific hospital utilization is low people tend to go to the hospitals they trust and those well known for proper treatment. Local hospital utilization is in line with the national statistics (Aizenman, N.C., August 13, 2008).
Question 2
Number of 2019 hospital discharge should be as follows:
Number of 2019 hospital discharge should be as follows:
| Town | Population | Hospital Discharge | Total Patients | Webster Hospital | Middle
Community Hospital |
Other |
| Jasper | 49247 | 5352 | 24084 | 3013 | 17100 | 3971 |
| Middleboro | 47590 | 6201 | 35346 | 7076 | 277830 | 440 |
| Statesvile | 14350 | 1530 | 7191 | 3020 | 4056 | 115 |
| Harris City | 12,904 | 1730 | 8996 | 6743 | 2020 | 233 |
| Mifflenville | 2066 | 330 | 1716 | 596 | 1077 | 43 |
| Carteville | 10240 | 456 | 7286 | 2839 | 4288 | 153 |
| Minortown | 2103 | 420 | 2408 | 601 | 1796 | 11 |
| Boalsburg | 1935 | 220 | 1217 | 681 | 513 | 23 |
| Total for 2014 | 141435 | 17239 | 88238 | 24569 | 58680 | 4989 |
| 2019 Demographic Forecast | 152,042 | 18532 | 94856 | 26412 | 63081 | 5363 |
Question 3
The hospital utilization statistics for 2019 is estimated based on the percentage increase of the previous years. The past ten years is used as blueprint for the year 2019. According the estimates shown in the table above, the number of in patients increased annually at a rate of 7.5%. This is an indication that the number of in patients by 2019 would have increased as shown in the table. For Webster hospital the value increases to 24569 while for MCH the value rises up to 63081.
Question 4
The findings indicate that there is need to increase the capacity of the hospitals. Moreover, more hospital personnel should be employed to reduce the effects of understanding in the hospitals. More preparations should also be done by buying the necessary equipment such beds.
Physician type analysis
Based on the national statistics, it is very evident that the number of physicians in Hillsboro County is not enough for the health service need of the county. The ratio of physicians to patients is observed nationally to be about 1:1500 persons. This is a clear indication of understaffing in the health sector. Hillsboro having a similar ratio has serious lack of physicians. This might be a contributing factor to the rates of mortality being registered in the county. The medical specialties that should be added include the nurses, health officers, nutritionists and even the pharmacist. As for 2014, about 100 nurses should be added per town, 50 public health officers and 50 nutritionists. Addition of this number of staff will ensure efficient service accessibility in the health sector. The nurses should be more because they are the most responsible for intensive care of the patients. Their presence is of essence even in the nursing homes. Nutritionist on the other hand, will be prescribing the best diet for the patients as the health officers ensure the leaving conditions are favorable. This increment will have the overall effect of improving the conditions of the patients and the population at large. Proper treatment will also help in the increment of the economic situations of the county thus reducing poverty level. (Borjas, George J., 2003).
Health Needs Study
Question 1
Hillsboro County is surely experiencing excess mortality with specific death causes. The unknown causes of death are about 10% or less.in 2014 for example the total number of deaths was 1236 while total leading causes are 1047. The causes of death are varied and so contribute to majority of deaths in the county. These values are in line with the national statistics on mortality. The leading causes of deaths as can be observed in the table are diseases of the heart. This is due to lifestyle and foods that people eat. The next in line is cancer which is also contributed to due to lifestyle exposures. It is so evident that people all over the world needs to revise their lifestyle for proper living.
Question 2
The health insurance coverage of Hillsboro County is similar to that of the national of the national. These rates compare to the extent that it looks like a replica of what happens at the national level. It would be fare if one assumes that Hillsboro is a sample of the national statistics. The insurance cover should be extended to more population of the population. This is because it will help in covering old age expenses such as the hospital bills and special meal services. The dependent left behind will also benefit. A quick look at the demographic profile revealed a high population of the youths and less old age people.
Question 3
These findings are of great significance to the US citizens and the entire world population. Diseases of the heart being seen as the leading cause of deaths, US citizens should try and invest in healthy living. Proper diet and good exercise will help reduce affects cause by cholesterol on the blood systems of the heart thus reducing cases of heart attack. The cancer cases are also due to the lifestyle of citizens in US. Most people depend so much fast foods and processed meals which in most cases makes the susceptible to attack by these diseases. Cases such as those of assault and homicide are majorly on the young generation.
Vital Statistics Analysis
The vital statistics clearly show the numbers of live births, deaths, infant deaths, neonatal deaths, post neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, out-of-wed-lock births and marriages. According to the statistics, live births are the highest followed by deaths and then out-f-wed-lock births. These statistics is essential in understanding the rates of population increment in the county balance between the live births and deaths predict the population increase. Out of wed lock births also contribute immensely in increase in population of the county.
County-Wide Disaster Planning
To enhance the areas’ ability to address large sale weather disaster and/or other types of large scale disaster the county should focus on the following key action:
- Creating toll free help lines in various part of the county. This help line should be able to operate for 24 hours every day. This will ensure that the emergency service providers are contacted easily anytime.
- Improving the states of roads in the county by either expanding or making them smooth or both. This will reduce delay of the emergency crew by heavy traffics sometimes experienced in the towns.
- Creating emergency awareness campaigns. The citizens should be trained on what to do in case of emergency. The need to report the cases of emergency should be the object of the awareness. The awareness should also focus on providing emergency contacts to the people.
- The county should increase the number of emergency centers within the county. This is essential in ensuring the disaster management team is as close to the people as possible. This would help reduce the damages and losses that occur due to delay of emergency or rescue teams.
- The government should increase funding to the emergency service department. The funds would help in recruiting of more staff and ensuring the emergency service equipment is maintained properly always.
- More courses should be offered on emergency on anyone will to learn. This would help in ensuring that the population in the county is well informed about the steps to take in case of emergency (Borjas, George J., 2003)
References
Aizenman, N.C. (August 13, 2008). “U.S. to Grow Grayer, More Diverse”. Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
Borjas, George J (2003). “Welfare reform, labor supply, and health insurance in the immigrant population”.Journal of Health Economics. 22 (6): 933–958. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2003.05.002. ISSN 0167-6296.
Passel, Jeffrey (February 11, 2008). “Pew Research Center: Immigration to Play Lead Role In Future U.S. Growth”. Pewresearch.org. Retrieved 2013-05-