Photo via Unsplash
There are 29 Virginia locales that have earned a place among the 500 healthiest communities in the nation in an assessment released on Tuesday, including five in metro Richmond.
Local listings include Hanover County at No. 61, Powhatan County at No. 130, Goochland County at No. 244, New Kent County at No. 340 and Chesterfield County at No. 345. The heart of the metro area, the city of Richmond, was unranked in the assessment, released by U.S. News & World Report. Henrico County also was unranked.
The national top 10 included affluent Washington, D.C., suburbs in Northern Virginia, with Falls Church City at No. 3 and Loudoun County at No. 4. Communities were assessed in 10 categories including population health, equity, education, environment, health, housing, nutrition, safety, community vitality and infrastructure and were assigned a grade on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 the best. Falls Church City had a combined score in the 10 categories of 763.8.
The highest-rated metro Richmond community, Hanover County, had a combined score of 683.6. Richmond’s combined scored is 473, with better grades in economy (69) and infrastructure (67) and lower marks in equity (10) and community vitality (29). Components of the equity score include premature death disparity index score (0.19 in Richmond, compared with a national median of 0.04), a racial disparity in education attainment level (.32 in Richmond, compared with .15 nationally) and a segregation index score (.48 in Richmond, .41 national median). Henrico County had a combined score in the 10 categories of 590, scoring highest in infrastructure (78) and population health (75) and lowest in environment (38).
Overall Score Select Communities
(Weighted average of category scores)
79 Hanover County
74 Powhatan County
70 Goochland County
67 New Kent County
67 Chesterfield County
62 Henrico County
45 Colonial Heights
39 City of Richmond
26 Hopewell
21 Petersburg
CAPSULES
Health and medicine news in brief
- As of today, Medicaid has been extended to provide dental coverage to some 750,000 Virginians. Medicaid program participants can find a dentist at the Department of Medical Assistance Services website. Care ranges from preventive exams and X-rays to prosthodontics and oral surgery, according to the Virginia Dental Association.
- Applications open on Sept. 1 for a streamlined program to a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree through the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing. The B.S. to Doctor of Nursing Practice Program allows nurses who have earned a bachelor’s degree in the field and other students to take both master’s-level and doctoral-level classes to earn a degree more quickly, according to a release. Classes will be offered in person and online.
- There’s now a Level 1 Burn Center at Chippenham Hospital. The HCA Virginia facility has earned a provisional designation from the Virginia Department of Health, according to a release. The program will be reassessed in a year to determine if it will receive permanent Level 1 status.
- The community fundraising campaign for the Wonder Tower at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU has reached its halfway mark in reaching its $100 million goal. The Built for Kids campaign recently received a $500,000 anonymous donation to the Children’s Hospital Foundation campaign, according to a release. The donation was from a former board member in honor of Dr. William Tate Graham, founder of Richmond's first children’s hospital, on Brook Road. The 16-story tower is targeted for a spring 2023 opening. The $400 million project will be home to a new inpatient and emergency care facility.
