- April 19, 2024
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The Health Department is applying to become federally qualified, allowing it to offer more services.
Local infant mortality rates are up, according to a Monday, June 4, presentation by Flagler Health Department Administrator Patrick Johnson to the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners.
Last year, six infants died in Flagler, and the trends are a concern for Johnson and his department: As the number of total infant births decreased from 2007, the number of deaths has not decreased accordingly. Whereas 988 infants were born and four died in Flagler in 2007, 787 were born and six died in 2011.
So far in 2012, two infant deaths have been recorded.
Compared to the state, which reports an infant mortality rate of 6.4 infants per 1,000, Flagler has been higher the past two years, with 6.9 in 2010 and reaching 7.6 in 2011.
Death rates for African-American infants are even higher, coming in at 27.8 per 1,000 in 2011 (three out of 108 infants born) and 8.1 in 2010 (one out of 124).
“(This is) not good news for Flagler County,” Johnson said. “We have to make a change. We have to address this.”
Of the eight infant deaths recorded this year and in 2011, five were caused by prematurity and three were caused by the baby “co-sleeping” in a bed with parents, Johnson added. To help fight the trend, Johnson wants to launch an education initiative, with a focus on safe-sleep information, and begin distributing cribs to families in needs.
More federal funding sought
In other Health Department news, state funding to the center has decreased by more than $5 million since 2009. The center also has seen a net loss of 10 employees in the same timeframe.
With those challenges in mind, Johnson is currently in the application process to make the Health Department federally qualified, which would enhance its services by offering adult primary care, maternity and pediatric care, a rural outreach, a direct pharmacy partnership and behavioral health care.
In order to become qualified, the center has to become a 501cs. It is then rated on raw data, which accounts for 25% of the application process, and has to submit a narrative, which accounts for 75%.
“When we do add up where we think we are … we’ll only get 20 (of 25) points,” Johnson told the board, explaining that the data score is based off ratios such as population-to-primary-care-physicians, percent of population at or below 200% of poverty and percent of population uninsured.
The narrative portion of Flagler’s assessment will have to be nearly perfect, Johnson said, because the state “really doesn’t look at applications that score under 90 points.”
