WESTON — Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital (SJMH) in cooperation with the Lewis County Health Department, recently completed the 2019 Lewis County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA).

The two groups created their first joint venture in 2013 and then again in 2016 The Community Assessments are now available on the Hospital’s website at www.stonewalljacksonhospital.com. Copies of the CHNA are also available at the Hospital and in SJMH Physician Offices.

The SJMH Marketing Department created the assessment in three steps.

The first stage was the completion of online and paper surveys distributed in the summer and fall of 2018. There were 392 people who participated in the 37-question survey dealing with local resident’s health habits and thoughts. More women than men, and more married people than single participated in the survey.

The majority of people noted drug addiction to be the largest health concern. In 2013, the top concern was obesity, followed by other obesity-related illnesses. Obesity followed drug addiction in this year’s Assessment. Because of the previous Assessments, SJMH has taken a pro-active role in combatting obesity by creating playgrounds, planting an urban orchard, and supplying raised gardens for the local high rises. Another project of the Hospital is support for Pace Yourself Lewis County — a collaboration of groups dedicated to having a monthly walk/run for fitness. The Lewis County Health Department has also worked to combat the health issues in the report.

The second step of the process was attaining background information about the health habits of Lewis Countians. Overall, Lewis County is in the 44th position of a rating of health in West Virginia. The county information can be found at www.countyhealthrankings.org. This site is an important tool used in this assessment and was created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It is a health comparison called “County Health Rankings & Roadmaps.” The following graph provides a comparison of Lewis County’s healthcare rankings between the CHNA in 2013, 2016 and this year.

In 2019, Lewis County ranked 44th overall out of 55 counties in the state according to this comparison. Eleven counties had worse health categories than Lewis County.

Lewis County ranked 31st in health behaviors, an improvement from three years ago of 19 places. Health behaviors is based on rates of smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted diseases (triple the national average of top performers), teen births (Lewis has 50 births compared to 14 for nationally and 36 in the State of WV) and alcohol-impaired driving deaths (26% compared to 13% nationally of top performers and 31% of West Virginia.)

The county’s Clinical Care ranking is based on a number of factors including the number of dentists, primary care doctors, and mental health professionals located here. The county’s rate of mammograms for women who have Medicare is 49% nationally of women who receive a mammogram compared to only 34% of women in Lewis County.

Lewis County ranks 30th with Social and Economic Factors including violent crime, injury deaths, unemployment, children in poverty, education and children in single parent households.

There are several sub-rankings in this survey, too. For example, Lewis County ranks 19th in the Physical Environment category. This ranking is based on the amount of air pollution, good drinking water, housing issues and driving habits in the County.

The last step of the Assessment was a focus group conducted in April 2019. Lewis Countians gathered for the meeting to study the outcomes of the county-wide survey and suggest ways for change. The suggestions are included in the Assessment and include: health education provided by SJMH and the Health Department; outreach to the community for healthier lifestyle choices; an annual Children’s Safety Fair; and coordination of an annual breast cancer awareness event, to name a few strategies.

The Assessment is a mandate by the Internal Revenue Service for SJMH’s non-profit status and a mandate by the State of West Virginia for the Health Department.