By 1808Delaware
The site 24/7 Tempo, a publication of 24/7 Wall Street, a “financial news and opinion company” according to its website, recently set out to answer an interesting question in light of the current public health crisis:
Given the pandemic, which counties in the United States have the fewest number of hospitals per capita?
The answer they reached included a reference to Delaware County.
Using a methodology and sources that are profiled here, the report found:
“People who are sick are not spread evenly across the country. Most cases are found in more densely-populated urban areas — and these crowded places tend to also be the counties with fewest hospitals per capita.”
Among the 50 counties with the fewest number of hospitals, Delaware County appeared at Number 31, based on the following statistics:
- Population : hospitals: 197,008 : 1
- Ambulatory surgery centers: 12
- Primary care physician to population ratio: 1 doctor per 701 people
- Pop. in 2017 reporting poor or fair health: 12.6%
- Pop. in 2018 without health insurance: 3.9%
The post in 24/7 Wall Street can be read here.
The unique positioning of Delaware County undoubtedly makes those numbers sound worse than they are. A large percentage of the county’s population lives south of Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware, and there are several hospitals and medical centers in the northern part of Franklin County, including in Westerville and Dublin.
