Flu, pneumonia, suicide among main concerns in public health report
Infectious and chronic diseases, mother-and-child health issues and injuries are the priorities identified by public health officials in a draft assessment being presented this week to the Southern Nevada Health District board.
The assessment prioritizes influenza and pneumonia; pre-term and teen births, and low birth weights; and suicides and drug poisonings as being issues of greatest importance to public health officials in Southern Nevada.
The community health assessment, a process of prioritizing needs and identifying the resources to meet them, will be used to develop a community health improvement plan, a key part of the health district’s efforts to be recognized by the Public Health Accreditation Board. Accreditation offers a process of measuring the health district’s performance against certain standards for how services are delivered to members of the community.
The United Way of Southern Nevada, UNLV, the American Heart Association, the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce and Dignity Health Nevada are among the groups that cooperated on the 91-page assessment being presented Thursday morning to the health district board.
Contact Steven Moore at smoore@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563.