New state report looks at progress on key health issues

A new Oregon Health Authority report offers an in-depth look at how the state’s public health system is doing on key health issues, setting a baseline for tracking progress toward improving population health.

The 2018 Public Health Accountability Metrics Baseline Report examines key health issues such as improving childhood immunization rates, reducing tobacco use and opioid overdose deaths, and ensuring access to clean drinking water. It highlights where the public health and health care systems can work together to achieve shared goals.

Many of the metrics outlined in the report, the first of its kind in Oregon, align with coordinated care organization (CCO) incentive metrics in Oregon’s Medicaid coordinated care system.

“Tracking metrics for the same health issues across CCOs and in public health settings presents a real opportunity to tackle these issues with both public health and health system interventions, and hopefully gain some good momentum,” said Cara Biddlecom, director of policy and partnerships, OHA Public Health Division.

The Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB), which advises OHA on policy matters related to public health programs, established the measures in June 2017 as a way of tracking progress toward population health goals as part of the modernization of Oregon’s public health system. The metrics also will help identify where changes are needed if goals aren’t being met.

Public health modernization is intended to ensure the public health system operates efficiently, is aligned with health system transformation, and is set up to provide critical protections for every person in the state.

Key findings from the report, which uses mostly 2016 data, include:

With 89 percent of public water systems meeting health-based standards, the public health system is close to meeting the statewide benchmark of 92 percent. Oregon’s public health authorities ensure clean drinking water for people across the state by inspecting 3,600 public water systems and taking corrective actions when standards are not met. Rates of gonorrhea infections are considerably higher than the statewide benchmark. Oregon, like much of the country, has experienced a large increase in gonorrhea rates in recent years. Oregon’s public health system is using some of the Legislature’s $5 million state investment in public health modernization to establish regional systems to control communicable diseases like gonorrhea. For most accountability metrics, health outcomes vary across racial and ethnic groups. Understanding where health disparities exist will allow state and local public health authorities to focus interventions on reducing disparities.

This report is intended to be used to understand Oregon’s status on population health priorities and public health interventions to make improvements. Where possible, data are reported by race and ethnicity, which help to understand the health disparities that exist in Oregon. The report should not be interpreted as a report card for Oregon’s public health system or any individual public health authority.

In future years, annual metrics reports will provide the public health system and its partners and stakeholders with information they need to understand where Oregon is making progress toward population health goals, and where we need new approaches and additional focus.

The full report is available on the Public Health Accountability Metrics webpage at http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/PH/ABOUT/Pages/AccountabilityMetrics.aspx.