Nevada, Mo. launches comprehensive community health improvement project

The city of Nevada, Mo., in Vernon County, currently ranked 88 out of 115 Missouri counties on the Robert Wood Johnson annual report for health outcomes, is launching a citywide initiative to improve the community’s health.

“Nevada recognizes that health and wellness are fundamental quality of life issues essential to our economic prosperity,” Nevada's City Manager J.D. Kehrman said in a July 23 statement. “The intent of this project is to make the healthy choice the easy choice, ultimately giving our residents more options, more choices and more control over their health and care.”

In addition to improving the city layout to include bike lanes and working with restaurants to increase healthy options, Nevada partnered with Cerner to digitize residents’ health records.

“By digitizing our entire healthcare community, we are creating an environment that will allow for integrated communication among all providers, regardless of their EHR system,” said Nevada Regional Medical Center CEO Judy Feuquay of the the city’s partnership with the Kansas City-based health IT vendor.