Juneau County-Wisconsin Partnership Collaboration Featured in Health Rankings

The Wisconsin Partnership Program of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison - through its Community Academic Partnership Fund - awards planning grants to help develop interventions aimed at making a healthier Wisconsin for all. Now, the product of one of those grants is being held up as an example to the nation.

In two years, Juneau County has improved to 52nd out of Wisconsin's 72 counties in health outcomes according to the Wisconsin County Health Rankings released by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute. The success story in Juneau County, Wisconsin, illustrates the importance of data-driven health interventions.

On February 17, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute teamed up to release the first-ever county-by-county health rankings for all 50 states. Dr. Patrick Remington, Associate Dean for Public Health in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, introduced the rankings at an event in Washington D.C.

This release brings what has been a valuable resource to local health departments in Wisconsin to a national level. Juneau County's example should also serve as an example as to how improvements can be achieved.

With the low rankings pointing to serious problems, Juneau County's health department won a $59,250 Partnership Development Grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program.

This collaborative project brought together local stakeholders with UW School of Medicine and Public Health faculty and students from the Master of Public Health program (another Partnership-funded initiative). They worked together to identify challenges, analyze existing resources, and devise a health improvement plan for the county. The early returns appear positive.