Polk County recently held its State of the County 2025 forum at the Polk State College Center for Public Safety in Winter Haven. While topics ranged from health care and schools to transportation, infrastructure, and more, the insights gleaned about health care were what resonated most with us here at Central Florida Health News.
At the forum, Taylor Freeman, public health planning manager for Florida Department of Health in Polk County, shared some of the findings from the Community Health Assessment report, which is set to publish in June.
The assessment, which takes 18 months to complete, is an enormous undertaking considering the diversity and size of our county. It involved more than 2,000 responses, and Freeman said the demographics of the survey respondents closely mirrored that of the county.
These are a few key takeaways.
Three main health priorities emerged: Access to health care, behavioral health, and chronic disease.
Access to Health Care
Respondents cited access to health care as the leading factor of a healthy community, yet 27% said at some point they were not able to get the dental care they needed, and 42% reported that they were unable to get needed health care. Freeman called Polk County a “provider-shortage area,” with lower rates of medical, dental, and mental/behavioral health providers in Polk County than the state average.
To be more specific, here is how Polk ranks compared with the state average.
Polk County Health Care Providers Per 100,000 Residents
Family practice physicians
→ Polk: 6.3
→ Florida: 13.3
Internists
→ Polk: 27.2
→ Florida: 46.2
Medical doctors (all categories)
→ Polk: 115.6
→ Florida: 261.2
Dentists
→ Polk: 27
→ Florida: 61.5
Behavioral Health
Polk had a higher rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for self-harm injuries when compared with the state. In addition, Polk had higher rates of Baker Acts than the rest of the state and an increasing rate of opioid and drudge overdose deaths.
Chronic Disease
Respondents listed being overweight, diabetes, and cancer as their top three health concerns. Freeman’s secondary data, showing Polk’s increasing rates of death from heart failure, stroke, hypertension, and diabetes, reflected those concerns.
We are constantly keeping you updated on new health care facilities and partnerships, and these statistics are the reason why. This kind of insight further underscores the need for more providers and the crucial role access plays in the quality of life for county residents.