Forsyth County has made progress in the death rates for cancer as well as cerebrovascular and heart disease, but problems are emerging with obesity and suicide rates, according to county data released Tuesday.
Forsyth Futures, a nonprofit organization that pulls together statistics about living and working in the county, gave a report on health care at a workshop Tuesday evening at the Hawthorne Inn to a gathering of county leaders and health professionals.
"Over the past 10 years, some of our data shows we're moving in the right direction; some does not," said Mari Krane, data and research director for Forsyth Futures. "We are trying to help determine where the community is making progress."
More doctors than ever are working in Forsyth, increasing from 39 per 100,000 residents in 2001 to 45 in 2010. The number of primary-care physicians has increased, too, from 13 to 16 per 100,000 over the same time. Also on the rise are registered nurses and physician assistants.
At the same time, however, more residents of Forsyth are uninsured. An estimated 20 percent of non-elderly people were uninsured during fiscal year 2008-09. From January 2010 to May 2011, 50.9 percent of people who visited emergency rooms at both Forsyth Medical Center and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center had no insurance or were covered only under Medicaid.
In discussing the report and upcoming national health care reform, a panel including the leaders of both hospitals spoke about what the public needs in health care.
"Instead of being an episodic-based provider of health care, we are creating partnerships with patients across time," said Jeff Lindsay, president of Forsyth Medical Center.
People are becoming more educated and demanding consumers of health care, said Dr. John McConnell, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who added that the hospital is creating "a whole range of programs" that provide innovation in primary care and patient convenience.
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