Tag: public health

National Laboratory Workers Week

Did you also know that the Philadelphia Public Health Laboratory performs over 300,000 tests per year? Did you even know that the Health Department has a lab?!

The tests our laboratory professionals do include everything from general health screenings, diabetes testing, sexually transmitted disease testing, and general microbiology testing.  In addition, testing is also performed on samples collected from any disease outbreaks that we investigate.

https://beta.phila.gov/2018-04-26-national-laboratory-professionals-week/

Translation of Critical Health Information

Heath Dept. spokesperson James Garrow told Billy Penn the city does already translate some documents, on a case-by-case basis.

These documents are usually grouped with the English documents on the department website, he said. Per Garrow, it takes two to three business days to translate a document to Spanish, via the city’s translation vendor, Geneva Worldwide.

https://billypenn.com/2018/02/15/phillys-health-department-should-release-opioid-information-in-spanish-advocates-say/

By Michaela Winberg

2017 Health of the City report

Today, Philadelphia Department of Public Health released a new report, Health of the City, which describes the landscape of health for people who live in Philadelphia. The Health Department developed this report to help health care providers, City officials, people who make decisions for non-governmental organizations, and individual residents make more informed decisions on health and factors influencing health.

https://mailchi.mp/phila/new-health-of-the-city-report-finds-good-news-and-troubling-news-on-the-health-of-philadelphians

2015-2016 Preliminary Vital Stats Report

PHILADELPHIA — Today, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health released a report summarizing births and deaths for 2015-2016. While there were many encouraging trends such as the continued drop in teen birth rates, overall mortality rates showed a slight increase in 2015 and 2016, perhaps as a result of increases in fatal overdoses involving opioids.

https://mailchi.mp/phila/philadelphia-health-department-releases-2015-2016-preliminary-vital-statistics-report