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~~th <br />To: Board of County Commissioners <br />From: Rosemary Summers, Health Director <br />Re: 2007 Community Health Assessment <br />North Carolina Publie Heclth <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />HEALTH DEPARTMENT <br />Rosemary L. Summers, <br />MPH, DrPH <br />Health Director <br />Richard E. Whiffed Human <br />Services Center <br />300 West Tryon Street <br />Post Office Box 8181 <br />Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br />Phone: (919) 245-2411 <br />Fax: (919) 644-3007 <br />www. co. oranoe. nc. us/health <br /> <br />Central Administrative <br />Services <br />Dental Health Services <br />Environmental Health <br />Services <br />Health Promotion and <br />Education Services <br />Personal Health Services <br /> <br />300 West Tryon Street <br />Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br />PH: (919) 245-2411 <br />FAX: (919) 644-3007 <br />Date: Apri14, 2007 <br />The Health Department is required by the North Carolina Division of Public <br />Health to conduct a comprehensive community health assessment every four <br />years. Orange County's assessment is due December 1, 2007. The assessment <br />plays a big part in the accreditation process for local health departments as well <br />and Orange County Health Department is scheduled for its first accreditation <br />process in the spring of 2008. <br />A comprehensive community health assessment consists of analysis of <br />secondary data as well as the collection and analysis of primary data for areas of <br />particular interest for the community as a whole. Most secondary data is <br />reported as state level statistics and only rarely contains specific local data. The <br />Health Department has elected to participate in the CDC's Behavioral Factor <br />Risk Surveillance Survey (BFRSS) on an annual basis as one means. of <br />gathering specific local data. This survey is conducted by the State Center for <br />Health Statistics with a random sample of 400 Orange County households. This <br />provides us with a picture over time about specific health behaviors of our <br />population. <br />As part of the Community Health Assessment for 2007 the Health Department <br />will also be conducting a random sample survey of 210 households in Orange <br />County in the month of April. This survey will provide a snapshot of current <br />concerns and issues specific to the residents in our county. The questions have <br />been formulated to gain information about health related concerns that are not <br />already contained in other data or information that we have available to us. <br />Subcommittee members that have been working on analyzing the secondary <br />data have submitted the questions for this targeted survey. University faculty <br />and students have assisted with the questionnaire design and the randomization <br />of household selection. <br />Health Department staff and volunteers from a variety of organizations and <br />agencies will be conducting the survey on two weekends in April. We will be <br />using our new GIS hand held computers to collect the survey. The survey <br />process will also serve as an exercise of our emergency preparedness as these <br />units would be used for extensive community surveys if a widespread outbreak <br />were present in Orange County. <br />Survey days are: <br />Friday April 13 and Saturday April 14 Based in Chapel Hiil <br />Friday April 20 and Saturday April 21 Based in Hillsborough <br />The schedule will be 8-5 each day with a 2-hour training period in the morning <br />and then survey collection for the remainder of each day. Teams of two will be <br />sent to specified addresses based on census block tracts across the county. <br />