Delaware County Council approved $91,877 last week to examine the delivery of health services in Delaware County, writes Kathleen Carey for the Daily Times.

The year-long study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, will  include recommendations on how to enhance and strengthen those services.

Topics include access to health care, cultural diversity, the opioid epidemic, the underinsured and uninsured, air quality and gun violence.

It follows up a 2010 Johns Hopkins study of county health services.

County Councilman Brian Zidek looked forward to how this report will shape the future.

“To the extent that we’re pursuing best practices that’ll be good for us… 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 came when two inconsistent reports emerged on health outcomes in the county.

A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report ranked the county 12th out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania in health factors and 49th for health outcomes.  An Aetna Foundation study ranked the county as one of the top 500 healthiest counties in the nation.

Read more about the study here.

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