Gov. Rick Scott ranks county health departments

Another arm of state government can be added to the growing list of agencies ranked at the behest of Gov. Rick Scott.

Through a public record request, the Times/Herald has obtained a copy of a report that rates the performance of the state's 67 county health departments.

Indian River County, with a raw score of 58 points out of 69, is at the top of the list. Liberty County's 23 points is the lowest. Hillsborough County ranked below the average score of 47, and was next-to-last among major metro counties.

The Department of Health, which came up with the ranking system at Scott's request, says the document completed in December is still a work in progress. The report includes health data, as well as the result of customer satisfaction and employee surveys. It also factors in financial stability and leadership effectiveness.

Although some county health officials said they have seen the report, the document hasn't been widely publicized. The Department of Health said it shared the ranking with county health officers in February, but also cautioned that its scope is limited.

"The department is actively working to refine the rankings tool through a work group of county health officers in order to create a more useful measurement system that accurately captures the public health efficacy of the individual county health departments," Department of Health press secretary Jessica Hammonds said in an email. "The department expects to finish its accountability process before the end of the year."

Read the rest of the story here.

Here is how South Florida county health departments ranked:

County	Raw Score	Rank
Broward	51	19
Dade	50	21
Palm Beach	47	33
Monroe	42	5

Here is a link to the full report: Download County Health Department Rankings

Comments

[whasup]

OK ... so we have a ranking ..l

Now let's hear about whether the local health departments are actually accomplishing their mission.

[whasup]

OK ... so we have a ranking ..l

Now let's hear about whether the local health departments are actually accomplishing their mission.

[nhall]

Is there a more detailed explanation behind the numbers? I noticed they just gave a score out of 0-3 for each category, which doesn't help much.