Health Care and services in Douglas County

Since 1966 our public health professionals TCHD (Tri County Health Department) have faced many challenges including financial and public health issues. As citizens, we are unaware of the services they provide until a health issue touches our lives.

One of the most critical areas since the 9/11 attack is our ability to deal with the threats of Bio-terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). To ease your mind, the TCHD has established an office for emergency preparedness which has led to complete emergency response plans in every division.

Although this may be the most pressing issue in our lives because of the fear of a terrorist attack, the department deals with many other areas on a daily basis.

Another more recent and important program has been related to West Nile virus. TCHD has tracking mechanism to follow the spread of the disease, and has established a program to eradicate mosquito infestations in the county.

Vital services of TCHD include conducting restaurant inspections, improving nutrition, prenatal care, prenatal care, assuring clean drinking water and sanitation and providing immunizations.

TCHD is composed of Douglas, Adams and Arapahoe counties providing the largest local health department in Colorado What that means to our citizens is an economy of scale that translates to a per capital rate lower than other individual health departments in Colorado. For example in 2003: TCHD per capita rate was $5.86 while Jefferson County was almost twice that amount at $10.92 per capita rate. Belonging to a multi-county health department has proven to be cost affective and an excellent example of how government should work in many areas.

Another important aspect of this successful collaboration is the agency’s ability to respond to a large-scale health emergency or infectious disease outbreak. In 2002, a hepatitis A case was successfully dealt with by quickly drawing from other departments to provide the investigation, immunization clinic and follow up to halt the crises.

The County has recognized the need for a community assessment to understand the wide variety of public health services we receive and the value of those services.

The most challenging issue continues to be the shrinking of resources. The department has modified existing programs to deal with the state per-capital funding loss. TCHD is responding by creating efficiencies in all of the programs while continuing to be responsive to our needs. The quality of life we are experiencing is directly associated to improved health and to an environment that has become an integral part of our standard of living.