Thursday, November 27, 2003
South Carolina has the most public health workers per capita.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pennsylvania has the fewest public health workers per capita than any other state in the nation, says a report recently presented to the American Public Health Association.
The state has 37 public health workers for every 100,000 people, while the national average is 158 for every 100,000 people. South Carolina, which has the most public health workers per capita, has 566 for every 100,000 people, in a report presented to the association last week.
The report, compiled for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by Kristine Gebbie of the Center for Health Policy at the Columbia University School of Nursing, examined staffing in 50 states, six territories and Washington, D.C.
"Pennsylvania is a large state; it's an important state," Gebbie said. "It has major transportation and tourism, and so it's surprising that the system is not more developed."
Health emergency
When the state experiences a public health emergency, such as the hepatitis A outbreak in Beaver County, its resources are pushed to the limit, said Dr. Stephen B. Thacker, the director of the Epidemiology Program Office at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health is leading the investigation into the hepatitis A outbreak that killed three people and sickened more than 600 who ate tainted green onions at a Chi-Chi's restaurant in Beaver County. The investigation is entering its fourth week, and many public workers have had to work long hours, officials said
Thacker said the CDC can help out during public health emergencies, but "there's going to be a limit even to the CDC."
Secondary emergency risk
Public health experts have not criticized how the state health department handled the hepatitis A outbreak, but Gebbie doubts whether the state would have been able to handle a second public health emergency during the past few weeks.
"When you don't have much depth, the secondary emergency becomes a disaster, because you have to either pull people off the first emergency or you don't even notice the second one is starting," Gebbie said.
The hepatitis A outbreak demonstrated that the state's health department responded quickly, department spokesman Richard McGarvey said.
"Fortunately, there wasn't a second outbreak at the same time," McGarvey said. "Can I predict a response? No."
Lack of local agencies
Pennsylvania's lack of local health departments is one of the reasons for the state's low ratio of health workers per capita. Allegheny County and seven other counties and municipalities have local health agencies, but many Pennsylvania counties do not, including Beaver County.
The state has 4,465 public health workers who are employed by state, local and private agencies, according to Gebbie's report. About 1,400 of them are employed by the state, McGarvey said.
In South Carolina, every county has a health department and the state provided some money for those agencies, Gebbie said.