Delco OKs $91G follow-up study of county health issues
MEDIA >> Delaware County launched the start of its public health study Wednesday with the hiring of Johns Hopkins University professionals in a push that is anticipated to take a year to complete.
By a unanimous vote, Delaware County Council voted to spend $91,000 to hire Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health to evaluate the delivery of health and public health services in Delaware County and then provide the county with recommendations in how to enhance and strengthen these services. They expect to begin their work in the next couple of months.
The contract with Johns Hopkins is for $91,877.26 and includes a three-member core team headed by Beth A. Resnick, senior scientist and assistant dean for Practice and Training, who participated in the last public health evaluation conducted by the county 10 years ago.
“It’s very exciting to be back,” Resnick said. “Often in academic world, you do a project and it’s done. It’s very rare that you get that privilege to come back so I really appreciate it and look forward to building on our 2010 study.”
The other two members of her team include Paulani Mui, assistant director for the Office of Public Health Practice and Training at Johns Hopkins, and Aruna Chandran, associate scientist at the university. Technical advisers for the study include Drs. Thomas Burke and Joshua Sharfstein.
“The exciting thing about our team is that not only do they have research expertise but all of us have worked extensively with state and local communities and thinking about public health systems,” Resnick said. “All public health is local.”
Some topics that will be evaluated include access to health care, cultural diversity, the opioid epidemic, the underinsured and uninsured, air quality and gun violence. There will also be a look at the health systems within Delaware County.
Resnick outlined the three phases of this study.
First, it will build on the earlier work that Johns Hopkins had completed, expanding it to new areas and concerns, particularly with how the county has changed over the past decade.
Secondly, the research team will have an extensive period of seeking input from the public.
“I think the part we’re most excited about is the community outreach and engagement with your community as broadly and widely as we can,” Resnick said.
Finally, the study will conclude with recommendations and a report to council.
“There are a lot of people who are very anxious to hear the findings that come about from this work,” County Councilman Kevin Madden said, as he commended the team for their inclusive approach to garner as much feedback and data from the community as possible. “It’s really important work and we appreciate it.”
Both county Council Chairman John McBlain and Brian Zidek looked forward to how this report will shape the future.
“It really was a terrific study in 2010 with a lot of substantive recommendations that I think were all implemented,” McBlain said. “We look forward to the new study and what improvements can be made in the county.”
Zidek said, “To the extent that we’re pursuing best practices that’ll be good for us to feel good that we’re doing the right thing and to the extent that there are improvements that we can make, we’ll look forward to hearing what those improvements can be.”
The need for the study arose last year when County Councilwoman Colleen Morrone and her colleagues expressed concern over the seemingly inconsistency of Delaware County’s performance in two legitimate reports.
In a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report, Delaware County was ranked 12th out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania in terms of its health factors and 49th for its health outcomes. In a study conducted by the Aetna Foundation, Delaware County was ranked as one of the top 500 healthiest counties in the nation.
As a result, a committee was formed to create a draft of what the study would research. Committee members consisted of county Executive Director Marianne Grace, Dr. Jim Bonner, county Medical Examiner Dr. Frederic Hellman, county Senior Medical Adviser Dr. George Avetian, Lori Devlin, county director of Intercommunity Health and Chelsea Price, head of the county’s Victims Services.
Requests for proposals were sent to nine universities that had public health divisions. In addition to Johns Hopkins, proposals were sent to Drexel University, Temple University, Jefferson University, Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, University of Pennsylvania, Rowan University and the University of Pennsylvania.