California State University, Long Beach
County Project: Ventura
Ashlee Nong
C012051869
HCA 300 Monday/Wednesday: 9:30-10:45
November 8, 2017
Word Count: 1,843
Abstract
This paper is an overall analysis of Ventura County which intended to give a broad, general, and various views of the county. With the main focus on the county’s health status assessment, medical access related and community health information. Each and every county has its own health issues concern and Ventura isn’t an exception. With a broad view along with statistical data of the county, this research will discuss about the county’s most concern health issue and their actions on solving it, therefore to give it an ideal solution.
Key terms: General Demographics, Socioeconomic Status, Poverty Rate, Health Insurance, Medi-Cal Managed Care, Hospitals and Physicians, Behavioral Health, Health Outcomes and Factors, Solution.
General Demographics:
According to the County’s website, Ventura County is one of 58 counties in the State of California, located at the northern side of Los Angeles, with 42 miles of coastline along with the Los Padres National Forest which 46% land mass of the county made up of. Ventura County offers a mild climate and stunning geography; the county has an average of 856,508 people compares to the rest of California population of 39,250,017, to resides throughout the incorporated cities within Ventura County such as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, and many more, brought Ventura to the 11th most populous county in the State of California. (County of Ventura).
Socioeconomics Status:
Ventura County has a solid financial base comprises of biotechnology, horticulture, oil production, military testing and development, and tourism. The County has a yearly spending plan of $1.8 billion in order to provide help to the misfortunates adults and kids, such as, law enforcing, ensure justice, protect public health and improve the quality of life. (County of Ventura). Starting in 2015, the County of Ventura is comprised of 84.5% of Caucasian American, 42.5% of Hispanic or Latino and the rest went ranged mostly evenly between African American, Asian and Alaska Native. Ventura County also have an even split of gender with the rate of 50% females and males. (U.S. Census Bureau). It is clear to see that the main population of the county made up of Caucasian American and Hispanic or Latino.
Poverty Rate:
Since healthcare status and quality is based on the socioeconomic status of the county, it is important to look at many different rates, in which poverty rate is one of the main data.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ventura has a relatively low rate of poverty with a 9.9% in compares to California of 15.4% poverty. Children ages from 0-17 has a poverty rate of 14.3%, which is lower than California’s rate of poverty in contrast. As record shows from year of 2015. Ventura is one of the county that has the lowest poverty rate, along with San Mateo, Marin, Placer, and San Benito; in compare with other counties from all around California (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Health Insurance:
As of 2013-2014, according to UCLA Adult’s Health Profile, there are about 24.2% of uninsured, 53% with job-based insurance, 7.5% has Medi-Cal, and 15.2% of other type of insurance coverage within the County of Ventura. (UCLA Adult’s Health Profile) From the record of 2011-2012, on the same scale, the rate of children and teenagers of Ventura County with no insurance coverage is 10.3%, about the same amount of job-based insurance in contrast to the adult’s health profile since they’re under the same insurance policy as their parents, and 33.4% of Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. (UCLA Children’s Health Profile). It shows that Ventura County has a low rate of uninsured residents and most of the County is covered their job based insurance.
Medi-Cal Managed Care:
According to the California Department of Health Care Services, Ventura County is managed under County Organized Health Systems (COHS). COHS serves throughout 22 counties with six health plans, with about 1.9M beneficiaries. In the COHS Model counties, the County Board of Supervisors created a health plan and contracts with the Department of Health Care Services. The health plan is run by the county, as the plan is created, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, along with health care providers, community groups, and local government are able to give input. Also, everyone is in the same managed care plan within a COHS county (California Department of Health Care Services). Other counties have different health plan names and plan, and with other health system. Gold Coast Health Plan is the single plan offered to serves all the beneficiaries that are enrolled in Medi-Cal within Ventura County
Hospitals and Physicians:
Ventura County has a good amount of 13 hospitals throughout the whole county, such as Ventura Medical Center, Simi Valley Hospital and Health Care, Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital and many more. All of the hospitals have the same type of services such as surgical, pharmacy, radiology, outpatient and inpatient care, intensive care unit, laboratory, and full medical staff includes residents and attending. Beds to patient ratio is proportionally directed to the whole population of the county. With great facilities, hospitals in Ventura County have excess services to offer to the people live in and out of the County without having to worry whether if their hospitals are good enough, in compare to others.
As of 2015, Ventura County has 50.30 Primary Care Physicians per 100,000 populations; about 428 Primary Care Physicians in total, and 850,536 populations of the County. On the same data set, Ventura County has 89.80 specialist per 100,000 populations, and 764 total specialists. The County’s Primary Care Physicians and Specialists have a varieties ranges from Internal Medicine, Aerospace Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Cardiology, Neurological Surgery, Neonatal-Prenatal Medicine and a lot more with a great amount of qualified physicians and specialists to serve the County.
With an excess amount of hospital, primary care physicians and specialists, Ventura County is above average judging from the facilities to populations ratio along with other community service within the County.
Behavioral Health:
Ventura County Behavioral Health offers different services for behavior health such as mental health services, alcohol and drug programs to adults, youth and family, women, and prevention services at multiple clinics located throughout Ventura County. Services also offered in the community within residential placements to meet client needs. Each programs offer different services and treatments along with knowledgeable staffs needed design specifically for each client such as group therapy, intervention, rehabilitation services, psychological testing and psychiatric assessment to determine client needs. Outdoors activities also offered to ease client’s mind and to give them the feeling as if they are also a part of the community, not that they are being left out just because of their behavioral health.
Health Outcomes & Factors:
As stated on UCLA Health Profile, 15% of Ventura County has fair or poor health compared to 20.1% to the rest of the state; 6.2% of the people were ever diagnosed with diabetes, in contrast to 8.8% of California; 24.9% of those were ever diagnosed with high blood pressure; while California has a rate of 28.1%. On the same scale, current asthma has a rate of 7.0% as the state has 7.9%, not serious psychological stress in the past year is also mentioned with 5.5% as the whole state has 8.0%. Last but not least, obese took up a 25.2%, not too far from the state’s rate of 25.9% (CHIS). Judging from this source of data, Ventura County’s residents have fair health status as the data are at the moderate and manageable rate if we look at the other counties within the state of California. Since Ventura County’s residents consume sodas and binge drinking, it is easy to interpret the diabetes percentage made up of the county.
On the same source of data, binge drinking took up a 32.8% while California stays at 32.0%, on the healthy side, 31.9% of the people in Ventura County out of 32.9% in California engaged in regular walking in the last week. Ventura County also have 11.0% of people who are current smoker while California has 12.3%, and lastly, 7.3% of Ventura County residents out of 10.4% of California consumed one or more sodas per day (CHIS). This side of data showed that while battling with other fair factors, an amount of Ventura residents also maintains their their health by engaging in regular walking and other exercises. While these data can be accurate, yet errors can easily be found as these data might not be reported correctly and I believe not everyone disclosed their health status and everyday routine to a source of data that was collected by a hospital or other approachable sources.
Solution:
Since Ventura County residents are prone to having diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, with habits of binge drinking, smoke, and frequently consume soft beverages, I would suggest them to manage their community health better with a new education program to somewhat take control of their residents’ health and to show them the pros and cons of their food and drink consumption habit. Furthermore, it is necessary to create more volunteer jobs within the community on the weekend so people will find their new hobby and attend to an activity of their choices. The community should maximize their power as an influence to the residents, teach them how to prevent themselves from sickness, establish a food and nutrition program, free workouts class such as yoga, pilates and other outdoor activities. This will not only help the community but to each and every individual to achieve a healthy life. It is important that residents of a county understand how important they are and how much they can contribute to the county just by improving their quality of life.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Ventura County’s health profile ranks average in contrast to other counties within California. As judging from all the health profile report and percentages, the main health concern of the county is obesity and other unhealthy habits such as binge drinking, smokes, and a high rate of sodas consume. I believe that with better education, affordable access to health care and community activities, people are more willing to participate in making their county healthy. Community system plays an important part as a base of solving the county’s health issues, and sometimes it takes one step at a time but into a brighter and better health profile for the whole county in the future.
References
County of Ventura. (n.d). About Us – County of Ventura. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from County of Ventura: http://www.ventura.org/county-of-ventura/about-us
California Department of Health Care Services. (2015, September). Ventura County. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from California Department of Health Care Services: http://dchs.ca.gov/services/Pages/VenturaCounty.aspx
Adults 2013 Health Profile (2013). UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from http://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/health-profiles/profiles/Documents/ hp1y11/CA-adult/regions/VenturaCounty.pdf
United States Census Bureau (2015). "Ventura County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." State and County QuickFacts. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/venturacountycalifornia/PST045216
Parsley Keith (2015). “Medi-Cal Managed Care”. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from http:// www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/Pages/Medi-CalManagedCare.aspx
Healthcare Information Division (2015). Hospital Annual Utilization Data. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/hid/Products/Hospitals/Utilization/ Hospital_Utilization.html