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Hat 1 Task 1

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Paul D. Parker HAT 1: Task 1 Merced County Health Status A community’s health can be established through a myriad of differing factors. Three specific factors that will help to determine the health of the county in which I live are community safety, disaster preparedness, as well as an analysis of the population. The community under review, Merced, is located in central California and made up of seventeen cities and communities whose individual populations do not exceed more than 75,000 and covers an area of approximately 1,972 square miles (United States Census Bureau, 2010) with a total population of approximately 255,793 people in 2010 (Merced County California, 2012). The first area of importance is community safety. It is …show more content…

The emergency room has the ability to care for a total of 6 patient’s requiring immediate emergency care, but has the capability to fly patients out to other facilities if required. Dignity Health of Merced is the larger of the two facilities and cares for the majority of the population of Merced County. Dignity Health has a total of 194 beds available. Dignity Health has approximately 10,900 admissions per year and total emergency room visits equaling around 66,000 per year. On a typical weekend the emergency room will see about 250 patients between the hours of 7 a.m. and7 p.m. (M. Parker RN, personal communication, June 8, 2012). Also serving the community are 8 primary clinics. The majority of these clinics are located within the city limits of Merced and Los Banos. Those located outside of these locations will have to drive upto 30 minutes to obtain medical services. Merced County also has five psychiatric facilities, only 2 of which are capable of admitting patients. Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center has 96 beds available for the community and has the ability to care for long-term patients between the ages of 18 to 65 years of age (Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center, 2012). Marie Green Psychiatric Center is a smaller facility that has the ability to admit upto 20 patients between the ages of 18 to 65 years of age, but this is a short term

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