The 2019 County Health Rankings have been released, and Allen County moved up from #84 to #38, a dramatic leap of 46 places!

Since Thrive’s inception, we have been working relentlessly to improve our community’s health, and we’ve made significant strides:

• Allen County built a new critical-access hospital
• Thrive has helped recruit new doctors, dentists, and mental health providers to Allen County
• Thrive has worked to build a coalition of healthcare organizations and professionals, the Rural Healthcare Initiative, that has led to improved cooperation and coordination of healthcare in Allen County
• Thrive has provided healthcare Navigators that have helped reduce Allen County’s uninsured rate from 21% to 9%, the second-largest improvement in the state
• Thrive helps individuals enroll in assistance programs
• Thrive has advocated for policies to address health issues and inequities in our community
• Thrive has worked to create community gardens and farmers’ markets that are a model for the state
• Thrive has worked to recruit and retain grocery stores
• Thrive has provided smoking cessation and diabetes prevention programs
• Thrive has led the effort to add nearly 40 miles of new trails and routes since 2008
• Thrive has created and managed a free bikeshare program that has become a model for similar programs around the state

Our community’s progress was recognized when Allen County won the national 2017 Culture of Health prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

But through it all, our County Health Ranking — one of our most-watched health metrics — has remained stubbornly in the lowest 25th percentile in the state. Since 2011, Allen County’s rank among the 105 Kansas counties has been 94-93-86-79-87-91-92-84, reflecting our deep generational poverty, unhealthy behaviors, poor healthcare access, and high rates of uninsured residents. The poor rankings also reflected the nature of the health data, which lags reality by several years.

Now, the data appears to have finally caught up with the improvements we’ve witnessed in Allen County.

This massive jump highlights the work being done around Allen County to move the needle in a positive direction to create a Culture of Health. We still have a ways to go, but every day we are fighting to make Allen County the healthiest rural county in Kansas. This data shows us in more detail where we are making strides and areas where we need to further focus our attention. Congrats to EVERYONE working to make Allen County a healthier community!

Learn more: CountyHealthRankings.org, Allen County 2019 Report Card