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<br />Orange County Health Department Releases Annual Report <br />Posted by Bruce Rosenbloom | Feb 2, 2017 | Health | 0 <br /> <br />The Orange County Health Department released its annual report to the public on Wednesday. <br />Dr. Colleen Bridger, the health director of the facility, cited a number of trends in the data gleaned <br />from the report. <br /> <br />“The first is that, overall, we continue to have really high satisfaction among clients who use health <br />services,” stated Bridger. <br /> <br />According to the report, the satisfaction rate of medical patients at the facility in 2016 was 89 <br />percent. <br /> <br />Bridger also brought attention to rising employee satisfaction rates as a second major trend. <br />“That’s really neat to see both clients and employees being highly satisfied with health department <br />programs and services.” <br /> <br />The report claims that 90 percent of employees at the facility attested to getting satisfaction from <br />their jobs every week. <br /> <br />The third trend outlined by Bridger is the increasing number of services that the facility provides for <br />the community. <br /> <br />“We were fortunate enough, two years ago, to expand our dental clinic,” noted Bridger. “We doubled <br />the number of dental teams that we have.” <br /> <br />According to the report, the number of primary care consults performed at the facility decreased in <br />2016 by over 400. <br /> <br />Bridger speculated that the decrease may be associated with the prevalence of the federal health <br />insurance marketplace. <br /> <br />“Our theory is that as more and more people were able to get insurance through the marketplace, <br />they had less need for safety net primary care services.” <br /> <br />The report also presents data on mandatory health screenings for refugees, with nearly 160 <br />completed at the facility in 2016. <br /> <br />“It’s a comprehensive assessment of their immunization status of any sort of communicable disease <br />risk,” explained Bridger. “[Refugees] have to have this completed shortly after their arrival to their <br />host community.” <br /> <br />Among the health concerns outlined by Bridger, sexually transmitted infections were foremost. <br />“We are seeing an increase in syphilis in gonorrhea, both in Orange County and in the southern <br />United States.” <br />