Press Releases
County Ranks Highest in Health Ratings in Maryland
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 29, 2017
County Ranks Highest in Health Ratings in Maryland
Montgomery County ranks as the healthiest county in Maryland in the annual County Health Rankings (CHR) for Maryland. The CHR, a collaboration of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, compares counties within each state on more than 30 factors that impact health, including social determinants such as education, jobs, housing, exercise, commuting times and more. According to the 2017 Rankings, the five healthiest counties in Maryland are Montgomery County, followed by Howard County, Carroll County, Frederick County, and Talbot County.
“I am proud that Montgomery County is again the healthiest county in Maryland,” said County Executive Isiah Leggett. “I look forward to building on what we’ve done and working with our community partners on areas that need improvement.”
The data in many of the health outcomes (today’s health) and health factors (tomorrow’s health) used to calculate the rankings were compiled from surveys based on samples of the population with the counties, much like the surveys and polls conducted during election years.
“We are pleased to be ranked first in Maryland,” said Director of the County’s Department of Health and Human Services and Acting Health Officer Uma S. Ahluwalia. We have focused for several years on improving population health and chronic disease management. We have engaged our hospitals, minority health organizations and other key stakeholders to support our goals for improving population health outcomes and our efforts are paying off. We have more work to do and we will keep our efforts focused on improving health factors and our physical environment.”
Healthy Montgomery, the County’s community health improvement process, was launched in June 2009 and brings together health providers, hospitals, insurers, County agencies and community members. A second Community Health Needs Assessment was recently completed. Co-chaired by County Councilmember George Leventhal and Jackie DeCarlo, executive director of Manna Food, Healthy Montgomery has work groups focused on such health issues as obesity and behavioral health. The goal is for Healthy Montgomery to continuously update the community’s health status and conduct periodic needs assessments to stay focused on improving health outcomes.
For more information about the rankings, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org. For more information about Healthy Montgomery, visit www.healthymontgomery.org.
# # #
Media Contact: Mary Anderson 240-777-6534