Although Athens County is home to the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, the county was ranked last in clinical care for Ohio in the national County Health Rankings.
The health rankings, released by the University of Wisconsin, are split into two main groups — Health Outcomes and Health Factors. In 2011, Athens ranked 58 in Health Outcomes and 77 in Health Factors in respect to the 88 Ohio counties, according to the rankings.
Ohio’s best and worst ranks fall in the Health Factors group, ranking 43 in social and economic factors, and 88 in clinical care, said Kate Konkle, outreach specialist for the university’s Population Health Institute.
In the two years the university’s institute has published the rankings nationally, Athens has placed last in clinical care, Konkle said.
Last year, OU-COM provided 170 free clinics, more than 4,000 immunizations via its mobile clinic and more than $1 million in free and reduced care, said OU-COM Dean John Brose.
“We’re doing a remarkable job in supplying medical care to an area that is in desperate need of that care,” Brose said. “Do we want to do more? Absolutely. And we’re putting new programs forth all the time and providing a lot of free care, but ultimately our goal is to turn out a lot of physicians and focus those physicians on rural areas.”
The college will be opening a new free clinic Friday, he added.
Currently, Athens County has one primary care provider per 2,873 people, compared to the national benchmark of one for every 631 people, Konkle said.
Region-wide poverty and state funding cuts may be the cause for Athens County’s social and economic factor rank of 43, said Nick Claussen, spokesman for Athens County Job and Family Services.
The department has lost $2.95 million in state funding since 2008. Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s current budget proposal calls for an additional $2 million to be cut, according to a department news release.
“I would think over the last few years we’ve seen our caseloads go up,” Claussen said. “At the same time, the same number of employees that can help go down. We’ve had to scale down some programs.”
Some of the programs cut dealt with car repair, dental care and teen pregnancy help, Claussen added.
Although the rankings have only been released nationally for two years, the purpose of the rankings is to encourage proactive action regarding community health, Konkle said.
“These are areas where you’re not going to see quick improvements,” Konkle said. “They tend to be things where there aren’t dramatic changes, but we have seen a lot of communities see these as a call to action and really get people fired up and engaged and interested in the health of the communities.”
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