BOARD OF HEALTH

September 8, 2008

 

** NOT APPROVED **

Members attending:  L. Cusumano, MD, R. Truax, C. Richmond, C. Depner, MD, T. LaFever

 

Others present:          L. Ballengee, T. Hull, M. McNinch, M. Warner

 

Call to Order

President Truax called the meeting order at 7:15 pm.

 

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Ms. Richmond and seconded by Dr. Cusumano to approve the minutes of June and August 2008.  Motion carried.

 

Health Department Budget ‘09

The budget is down approximately two million dollars mostly due to the reduction in staffing.  (22 positions).  

 

State Budget

Health Department programs have taken a 2% cut already, and there is talk regarding another 6% cut.  At this point, the cuts would not involve early intervention or special education programs.

 

Family Planning

Colleen Foreman from the State Health Department will be coming down this week to complete a routine audit of the Department’s Family Planning Program.

 

Public Health Director Appointment

Ms. Ballengee reported that a letter needs to be sent to the State from the County Administrator requesting her permanent appointment as Public Health Director.  This letter has been sent.

 

Acuities reported

Nursing visits were reported to the board with a range of 3.2 to 4.4 visits per day. 

 

Patient Satisfaction Surveys

June and July survey information was disseminated noting no dissatisfaction reported.

 

Home Care

Ms. McNinch reported that Willcare has been assigned a State identification number.  There are two committees at the State level charged with approving Willcare’s application.  A conference call is scheduled to try to expedite the process. 

 

Willcare has hired four nurses, one part time and three full time, along with the LPN hired previously.  

 

Ms. McNinch reported to the board of the problem of patient’s being discharged from the hospital without a physician.   This is not only a problem for the Health Department but for the patients as well.  The Department cannot legally visit a patient without physician orders.   This issue was discussed at length.   The Department would like to meet with the appropriate hospital staff and nursing home staff to discuss this issue.   The number of physicians in Allegany County has dwindled drastically, making it very difficult to find someone to accept patients.   The doctors are very busy seeing their patients.   It was suggested that possibly a physician assistant could accept patients as they have physicians overseeing them. 

 

It was also reported that Willcare has been purchased by another agency.  This is being viewed as something positive and will not change anything in the conditions of the sale of the Allegany County Department of Health home care agency. 

 

Family Planning Program

M. Warner, Public Health Educator (FP), presented the board with the programs Policy and Procedure Manual noting there were only a few changes such as:  in wording, deletion of nutrition, addition of gardasil; and the inventory responsibility from the MRCO to the Nurse Practitioner.   Mr. LaFever moved to approve the manual, with Dr. Cusumano seconding.  Motion carried.

 

Mrs. Warner also reported she will be using a new curriculum in her educational presentations this year.  Ms. Richmond asked if there was an evaluation done on the effectiveness of the presentations.  It was stated that each year surveys are done to determine the success of the program.

 

Ms. Ballengee reported that the department has found a new location for their Alfred Clinic.  It will be located in the basement of Dr. Delcampo’s office, and will be held every Friday.

 

It was also reported that Mrs. Patrick, the Nurse Practitioner, is due for review.  Ms. Ballengee will call Dr. Depner’s office with potential dates for him to conduct the review .

 

Other Programs

Mr. Hull reported the remaining nineteen (19) ATUPA checks were completed on August 27th with three (3) sales of tobacco products.   There are fines pending totaling $1050.00.

 

There has been one case of Legionnaire’s Disease reported.  The source will probably not be able to be determined.

 

A hearing is scheduled with one of the county’s mobile home parks on Wednesday.

 

 

 

Board of Health Appointment

There has been, so far, no recruitment of a physician to serve on the Board of Health.  A few more names were given to contact for this position (Dr. MacDonald; Dr. Call; Dr. VanDine).  It was asked again whether the physician must practice in Allegany County.   The bylaws state this is so, but the bylaws can be amended if necessary.  

 

Adjournment

There being no further business for this board, the meeting was adjourned at 8:05 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Teresa Claypool