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Health ranking shows Lucas County needs some serious work

Lucas County is in the bottom fifteen for the fifth year in a row. But the health commissioner says he's making it a priority.

LUCAS COUNTY (WTOL) - A health ranking of Ohio's counties shows there's some serious work to be done in Lucas County.

Lucas County is in the bottom fifteen for the fifth year in a row. But the health commissioner says he's making it a priority.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health rankings compare the length and quality of life for residents in each county in Ohio, while also looking at health behaviors and clinical care.

Lucas County ranked seventy-third out of eighty-eight total counties in the buckeye state.

"The only way we are going to be able to lower that number, get it better if you would, is to really look at and concentrate on some of those issues that we can tackle right now,” said Eric Zgodsinski, Toledo-Lucas County Health Commissioner.

Zgodzinki says urban, more industrialized counties have historically not done as well in these rankings as rural counties with better qualities of living.

He says whole community coordination is necessary to improve the rankings.

"What we are having an issue with is, we have a group over here working on let's say, obesity concerns, and we have another group over here working on obesity concerns," said Zgodzinki. "The coordination is not there."

Zgodzinki is implementing a strategic plan to deal with this ranking. Right now, he wants to get all local health agencies organized.

The strategic plan is set to be implemented at the beginning of next year.

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