County sees slight drop in latest health rankings

GRUNDY COUNTY – Grundy County has experienced a slight dip in the latest health rankings, which were released late last month in a report published on the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps website.
According to the report, Grundy County ranks 11th in the state for Health Outcomes, 12th for Length of Life and 24th for Quality of Life. These numbers are a drop from last year’s historically high numbers, when Grundy County was ranked 6th in the state for Health Outcomes, 7th for Length of Life and 17th for Quality of Life.
Cassie Frost, Grundy County Public Health manager, said that even though the rankings placed the county lower than last year, it doesn’t mean that general health is going downhill.
“I don’t think 11th is bad. We may have gone down in ranking, but we’ve seen a lot of increases in things like mental health providers available, and a decrease in things like preventable hospital stays, which is great,” she said. “Overall, we’re still even with the top U.S. performers [in the rankings].”
The rankings, which are released annually, measure quality of life and length of life for nearly every county in the U.S. using data from various organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Health Statistics and National Center for Chronic Disease and Health Promotion.
For the full story, see this week's Grundy Register!