Franklin County Health Department Strategic Plan

Community Health Assessment 2011

A full copy of the community health assessment can be found on the departments’ webpage at

In 2012, the Community Health Assessment (CHA) team distributed copies of the CHA assessment to strategic locations within the county including the libraries, Chamber of Commerce, County Commissioners, Franklin Regional Medical Center, schools and many other places within the county including on the Health Dept. website. Community Health Assessment team included three levels of participants: the advisory group, the work group, and the project facilitator. Primary data was collected through THE Community Health Opinion Survey and Health Resource Inventory.Secondary data was gathered from a variety of online sources. The convenience sampling method was utilized and 554 surveys were collected by the CHA team between February-May 2011. The survey results were entered into Epi-Info to tabulate the results. The health priorities were determined by the CHA team utilizing the Nominal Group Technique method. After discussion and a vote, the team concluded the priority areas for 2011-2015. The purpose of the Community Health Assessment is to provide the community a basis for improving health.

According to the 2011 Community Health Assessment team and the primary and secondary data, the 2011-2015 priorities are as follows:

  1. Access to Care

According to the Franklin County Community Health Opinion Survey, responder is split or neutral when it comes to their opinion on health care in the county. When asked “How do you feel about this statement: ‘There is good healthcare in Franklin County’?” 37.2% of responders chose “neutral.” 29.6% chose “agree”, 24.4% chose “disagree”, 3.2% chose “strongly agree”, 5.4% chose “strongly disagree”, and 0.2% left the question blank. Franklin County’s percentage of uninsured adults ages 18-64 has been below the state percentage for the past four years. Additionally, Franklin County’s percentage of uninsured adults decreased from 20.7% in 2009 to 15.6% in 2010 while North Carolina’s numbers increased from 21.6% to 22.7% during the same time period.Since 2007, the numbers of under and uninsured residents decreased. This may be due to Franklin County’s continuous efforts to focus on access to care.

  1. Physical Activity & Nutrition (encompassing chronic disease and obesity)

Physical activity and nutrition play a huge role in the health of an individual. According to the Franklin County Community Health Opinion Survey, when asked “During a normal week, other than in your normal job, do you engage in any physical activity or exercise that lasts at least half an hour?”, 60.8% said “yes”, 36.5% said “no”, .9% said “don’t know/not sure”, and 1.8% left the question blank. Of the 337 people who answered “yes” to being physically active, 332 gave further information about how often they are physically active. When asked “Since you said ‘yes’, how many times do you exercise or engage in physical activity during a normal week?”, the most popular response was “3”, with 37% choosing this option. According to the Franklin County Community Health Opinion Survey, 37.4% of responders replied “yes” to the question “Have you even been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that you are overweight or obese?” 50.4% replied “no,” 0.5% replied “don’t know,” 0.4% refused to answer, and 11.4% left the question blank. In 2010, 27% of Franklin County residents were obsese, while the state rate was at 28.6%. 36% ofresidents were reporte overweight, while 36.7% were reported overweight at the state level, which is about even.

The 2011 Community Health Assessment priorities show similarities in the health concerns of citizens in 2009 although, 2011 results are compiled under two umbrellas that encompass some of the same priorities previously noted:

  1. Access to Care (underinsured, and underinsured)
  2. Physical Activity & Nutrition (obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Cerebrovascular disease)

Please see the charts below.

Goal 1 / To improve the health status and prevent premature death for residents of Franklin County.
Objective #1 /
  1. Increase the number of high school students who are neither overweight nor obese by 5%.
  2. Increase the number of adults who consume fruits and vegetables 5 or more times a day by 3.5-4%.

Baseline Data / 2009: 18.9% Franklin County students were overweight and 22.9% were obese with
percentages higher than the state percentages
2009: number of adults eating 5 or more serving of fruits and vegetables
Fruit servings: 0-1 (73 out of 100); 2 servings (86/100); 3 servings(62/100)
4 servings (39/100); 5 servings (69/100
Vegetable servings: 0-1 (27 out of 100); 2 servings (46/100); 3 servings (58/100)
4 servings (50/100); 5 servings (71/100)
2009: number of adults getting the recommended amount of physical activity
Activity level of adults in Franklin Co. 30 mins. 60% yes, and 36% said no
Data Source: 2011 Community Health Assessment
CHA Priority Addressed / Physical Activity and Nutrition
Activities / Lead Person / Partners
N= new; E=existing / Timeframe
Health promotion and WIC will partner with 3 daycares to engage children and teachers educate about the importance of eating five fruits/vegetables a day to maintain a better health, with at least one daycare serving lower income children / Shanta’ Garner, Health Educator
Kim Campbell, WIC Supervisor
Becky Leonard, RN Health Promotion Supervisor / E- Franklin, Warren, Vance Opportunity Head Start
E- Local daycare centers of Franklin County / Beginning December
2012
Inform the public about physical activity opportunities and healthy eating programs in Franklin County and the importance of physical activity and healthy eating / Shanta’ Garner, Health Educator / E- Franklin County libraries, Cooperative Extension and Franklin Regional Medical Center / Beginning
December
2012
Provide physical activity opportunities and education on benefits of physical activity for adult s in Franklin County / Louisburg Senior Center / E-Franklin County Health Department
E-Curves Silver Sneaker program for adults / Ongoing
Develop walking trail and or park. / Franklin County Schools and Parks and Recreation / E-Local government / Ongoing
Goal 2 / To increase access to care for the underserved population.
Objective # 1 /
  1. By 2015, reduce the percentage of non-elderly underserved individuals (aged less than 65years) by 5%.
  1. To increase awareness of services offered to the underserved population of Franklin County

Baseline Data / 2010 : 15.6% Franklin County Adults were uninsured
Date and source of updated information: 2011 Community Health Assessment
CHA Priority Addressed / Access to Care
Activities / Lead Person / Partners
N= new; E=existing / Timeframe
Inform the uninsured and underinsured public about primary services provided by Franklin County Health Care Collaborative a network organized to provide long term quality health care at low or no cost to the underinsured and uninsured of Franklin County. / Franklin County Health Care Collaborative (FCHCC) / E-
Volunteers in Medicine, Franklin County Health Department/Home Health, Franklin Regional Medical Center, Rural Health Group, Franklin County DSS, CCNC
and Triump / 07/12-06/15
Offer free Dental care to the underserved population. / Volunteers in Medicine / E-
VIM, Franklin County Health Department,
Local Dental Providers,
Rural Health / Ongoing
Offer Home Health services to the population regardless of ability to pay. / Franklin County Health Department/Home Health / Local Providers,
Franklin County Health Department/Home Health / Ongoing
Market Services provided by health department through various sources of media / Franklin County Health Department/Home Health / Franklin Times Newspaper, Franklin County website Franklin County Health Department, Inventory Resource Directory
Community Outreach
(i.e. local churches, Senior Center, Cooperative Extention, Franklin County Schools website, local libraries) / Ongoing
Goal 3 / To improve efficiency of Franklin County Health Department operations
Objective # 1 / Establish a Quality Improvement (QI) program for the agency.
Baseline Data / No baseline data available
CHA Priority Addressed / N/A
Activities / Lead Person / Partners
N= new; E=existing / Timeframe
Hire Quality Improvement Specialist II / Health Director / N/A / January 2013
Assure adequate staffing in Home Health to perform QI activities / Home Health Supervisor
Health Director / N/A / July 2013
Form a Quality Improvement Committee with reperesentation from each department / Quality Improvement Specialist / N/A / January 2014
Partner with UNC Chapel Hill to provide training and CCNC consultant / Quality Improvement Specialist / E-
CCNC / 2014/2015