California unveils website to promote community health
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California debuted a new online portal that allows users to monitor health indicators — like the adult obesity rate and number of preventable hospitalizations – in each of its counties.
Launched by the state’s Health and Human Services Agency and Department of Public Health last month, the “Let’s Get Healthy California” site is an effort to help communities improve the health of their citizens. It focuses on indicators that fall into six categories: healthy beginnings, living well, end of life, redesigning the health system, creating healthy communities and lowering the cost of care.
The site is the result of an executive order issued by Gov. Jerry Brown to create a 10-year plan to control costs, promote personal responsibility for health and improve patient care — and make it the “healthiest state in the nation” by 2022.
“The website is intended to serve a wide range of partners including communities, non-profit organizations, state and local governmental agencies, policymakers and researchers — diverse stakeholders from many sectors who can collaborate on a shared vision to improve the health of Californians,” Department of Public Health spokesperson Orville Thomas wrote in an email to StateScoop.
It is funded by federal grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention Health and Health Services Block Grant, which provided $500,000 to support development and maintenance contracts through 2015 and 2016.
