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Santa Fe County and CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center Release the Santa Fe County Community Health Profile for 2013

Santa Fe, NM – June 7, 2013 - Santa Fe County, in partnership with CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, released “Santa Fe County in 2013: A Community Health Profile.” The document provides extensive information about the health of Santa Fe County residents. In addition to demographic and socioeconomic data, the report presents a wide spectrum of health indicators and behaviors, as well as factors contributing to health, such as access to food and recreation.

The Santa Fe County Health Policy and Planning Commission, as part of its mandate from the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners, is charged with providing updates to the County health plan. CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center is responsible for conducting a community health needs assessment that complies with IRS 990 nonprofit tax reporting requirements. CHRISTUS St. Vincent and the County, through the County Department of Community Services, collaborated to combine resources and retain a consultant to produce a single community health profile.

The next phase will be for the County to develop the County health plan and for CHRISTUS St. Vincent to identify community health implementation strategies. The data contained in Santa Fe County in 2013: A Community Health Profile will provide information on these two processes, which also will consider provider roles and the needs in the community. The extensive data should encourage informed dialogue about how best to improve the health of County residents, as well as provide a rich resource for community service providers and organizations.

Key findings in the community health profile include:

• Poverty rates have increased in Santa Fe County, especially for children and working age adults. One quarter of children live in poverty.
• Three-quarters of non-citizens living in the County lack health insurance.
• The alcohol-related death rate for the County’s Hispanic residents is twice that of Non-Hispanic Whites and 25 percent higher than that for Hispanic New Mexicans as a whole.
• Between now and 2040, the population ages 65 and over is expected to triple, from about 20,000 to about 61,000, and will then constitute about one-third of the County’s population.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) deems the southern portion of Santa Fe County, including the communities of Cerrillos, Madrid, and Edgewood, to be a primary care and dental Health Professional Shortage Area. The supply of dentists and primary care providers available to the County’s low-income population is also deemed by HRSA to be insufficient.
• Over 30 percent of County mothers received no prenatal care in the first trimester, with Hispanics and Native Americans less likely to receive prenatal care.
• Although births to teenage girls 15 through 19 have declined among all the County’s racial and ethnic groups, the Hispanic teen birth rate is almost twice that of Native American teens, and four times that of White Non-Hispanic teens. New Mexico is second only to Mississippi in the high number of births to teens.
• Drug overdose deaths are increasing, from a rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 in 1999 to 32 deaths per 100,000 in 2011, and represent the largest cause of unintentional injury death in the County. Both the hospital and the jail have seen a recent spike in the number of opiate-addicted pregnant women and their babies.
• Breast cancer incidence and mortality are higher in Santa Fe County than elsewhere in New Mexico.
• Approximately 2,500 adults (five percent of the adult population of Santa Fe County) have a serious mental illness, impairing their ability to perform major life activities.
• Obesity is increasing, both for adults and for youth. Adult obesity rose from 14.5 percent in 2004 to almost 20 percent in 2010, and almost nine percent of County high school students are obese.
• Diabetes is most prevalent among County Hispanics, with nine percent of Hispanic adults diagnosed with diabetes, compared with 3.6 percent of Native Americans and 2.7 percent of White Non-Hispanics.

Copy of the Full Report >>