Nevada ranks below national average in emergency preparedness, health security

Nevada ranks below the national average in emergency preparedness and health security, according to a report released Monday night by a New Jersey-based philanthropic organization.

The Silver State scored a 5.9 overall on a 10-point preparedness scale in the 2016 National Health Security Preparedness Index.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which directs the index and also supports the national County Health Rankings, found the United States is “relatively well-prepared” in the field of emergency management, averaging a 6.7 on a 10-point preparedness scale.

That’s a 3.6 percent improvement over data from 2013, the first year of data analyzed.

Nevada struggled with lower than average marks in all but two of the six fields measured — incident and information management and environmental and occupational health.

Glen Mays, a University of Kentucky health policy professor who leads the research team managing the index, said the report indicates Nevada may be falling slightly behind other states in its emergency management preparations.

“It’s important to recognize that we’re all vulnerable to large-scale disasters,” he said.

The index analyzed 134 measures from hazard planning by public schools to flu vaccination rates before using the measures to award each state a composite score.

Individual scores are also awarded in the following areas: health security surveillance, community planning and engagement, incident and information management, health care delivery, countermeasure management and environmental and occupational health.

“In order to keep Americans safe, we need to know how well equipped every state in the nation is to prevent and manage widespread health emergencies,” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said in a news release.

Western states including Oregon and Utah scored above the national average, while California met the average and Arizona fell below it.

Mays pointed out that Nevada has increased its overall score since 2013 in each field except two — health care delivery and environmental and occupational health.

The health care delivery measure analyzes “the state of health care systems” in average and emergency situations, according to the index. The Silver State fell by 0.1 point from its 2013 result.

In environmental and occupational health, which assesses the state’s ability to prevent potential health impacts from environmental and occupational hazards, the state’s score dropped by nearly 1 point.

Nevada isn’t alone in struggling with environmental and occupational health preparedness.

The United States generally lost ground in the environmental and occupational health category, with the average dropping 4.5 percent between 2013 and 2015.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.