Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties rank among the unhealthiest in the state
Luzerne ranked only 59th healthiest of the state’s 67 counties, according to the County Health Rankings report issued Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
Schuylkill ranked 56th while Carbon ranked 61st, the report said. The healthiest county in the state, which received the number one ranking, was Chester County.
The nationwide report looks at a variety of factors that contribute to the overall health ranking, including premature death rate, access to healthy foods, income, access to doctors, use of preventative screenings, environmental factors, and health behaviors such as smoking, obesity and alcohol use.
Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon all had higher than state and national rates for smoking, obesity, excessive drinking and motor vehicle crash death rates, the report said.
“It’s hard to lead a healthy life if you don’t live in a healthy community,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The County Health Rankings are an annual checkup for communities to know how healthy they are and where they can improve.”
The numbers didn’t surprise Drums physician Phillip Benyo, who was interviewing candidates for the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton Friday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of blame to go around,” he said. “As physicians, we’re not treating preventative and health issues, instead we’re treating diseases.”
Patients share some of the blame as well, Benyo added.
“We live in an abusive, health-wise, society,” he said, pointing to unwise choices about smoking and food, and neglecting to treat silent diseases such as hypertension and high cholesterol.
Benyo said some people take better care of their cars.
“They take their cars for annual inspections, and our cars can be replaced. We come in last on the list of things to do,” Benyo said.
“Patients and physicians need to join together and grow the boat of wellness,” he said.
Benyo hopes the new medical college will turn out physicians willing to stay in the area, allowing patients greater access to health care, especially preventative measures.
The report showed that people in Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill counties had access to fewer primary care physicians.
Nationally, there is one primary care physician per 631 people, and one for 838 people in Pennsylvania, the report said. In Luzerne County, there is one physician for every 1,027 people; Carbon has one for every 2,121 people and Schuylkill one for every 1,989, the report said.
Linda Thomas-Hemack, a primary care physician and program director for the internal medicine residency at the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, said the shortage of doctors is “an impending disaster” for the community.
“Access is a pillar of the population’s health,” she said.
To read the report, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org/pennsylvania.
Staff writer Erin Nissley contributed to this report.
By KELLY MONITZ (Staff Writer)
Published: April 2, 2011
http://standardspeaker.com/news/area-s-health-among-state-s-worst-1.1126997