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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH minutes 032708MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 1 March 27, 2008 ORANGE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT MISSION STATEMENT: To enhance the quality of life, promote the health, and preserve the environment for all people in the Orange County community. THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MET ON March 27, 2008 at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS PRESENT: Chris Harlan, Chair; Tim Carey; Ernie Dodson; DeWana Anderson; Matt Vizithum BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS ABSENT: Anissa Vines, Vice-Chair, due to illness; Jim Stefanadis; Sharon Van Horn; Sharon Freeland, meeting conflict; Jessica Lee; Moses Carey, Jr.; STAFF PRESENT: Rosemary Summers, Health Director; Wayne Sherman, Personal Health Services Division Director; Tom Konsler, Environmental Health Services Division Director; Donna King, Health Promotion and Education Services Division Director; Angela Cooke, Dental Health Services Division Director; Anne Miles Cassell, Administrative Assistant; Heidi Scarcella, Nutritionist GUESTS PRESENT: None I. Welcome and Introductions Chris Harlan, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:10 P.M. There were no guests present to be introduced. Due to a lack of quorum all agenda items acted on will be presented at the April meeting for a confirmation of action. The Board decided to continue with discussion of items on the agenda. I. Approval of March 27, 2008 Agenda The motion to approve the Agenda of March 27, 2008 was made by Ernie Dodson, seconded by Matt Vizithum, and carried without dissent pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. II. Public Comment for Items NOT on Printed Agenda None III. Action Items on CONSENT Agenda A. Minutes approval of February 28, 2008 meeting. B. Accept Additional Family Planning Funds The Health Department received confirmation of additional allocation of Family Planning (Title X) funds. These funds are calculated on a minimum basis per county and additional funds based on performance. OCHD has been allocated $9,772 in Family Planning funds to be used by May 30, 2008. It is expected that the Department will use these funds to purchase additional tablet PC’s that will be needed as the new Health Information System (HIS) is deployed late this fall. C. Consolidated Agreement with NC Division of Public Health MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 2 March 27, 2008 The Consolidated Agreement stipulates the provisions for receiving state and federal support for the listed programs: General Aid to Counties Communicable Disease (including TB control) Maternal Health Child Health HIV Testing & Counseling Child Service Coordination Family Planning Immunization Action Plan Food and Lodging Public Health Preparedness Environmental Health Health Promotion Refugee Health At this time most programs are funded at the same levels approved for the current budget year, however, there are two funds that are unknown at this time. Health Promotion funds in the amount of $24,461 are dependent on the inclusion of the preventive services Federal Block Grant by the U.S. Congress. Availability of federal public health preparedness funds are unknown but anticipated to be reduced by 10% to all counties, a loss of approximately $2,700 for Orange County. Each year supplemental funds become available during the fiscal year in various programs depending on state and federal action and on performance by the county. The total anticipated amount of funding as of July 1, 2008 represents less than 8% of the overall health budget. The state consolidated agreement is anticipated to provide $426,340 federal and state dollars to the county to provide specific services for fiscal year 2008-2009. This includes an additional $15,000 in aid to county funds for essential services and slight increases in refugee health funds ($1,830). Motion to accept items on the Consent Agenda was made by Tim Carey, seconded by Matt Vizithum, and carried without dissent, pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. IV. Reports and Discussion with Possible Action A. 2008-2009 Budget Presentation (under separate cover) The budget request for the Health Department for fiscal year 2008-2009 was provided for the Board’s consideration. The budget request document is organized by division within the Health Department and contains revenues, fee schedules for the upcoming year; personnel and operating expenditure details; and capital requests. Rosemary Summers presented a power point presentation of budget highlights and requested input from Board members. Dr. Summers began by thanking staff and division directors for their hard work. She stated that the budget is a good indicator of what the Department does and what it needs. Staff looked at the Strategic Plan and emerging needs and transferred resources between divisions to meet emerging needs in refugee health and communicable disease. There were very few operating increases except those related to new positions. Additional staff requests are: • Volunteer Coordinator –If the Volunteer Coordinator request is unfunded, the Medical Reserve Corps and CERT programs cannot be maintained. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 3 March 27, 2008 • Communicable Disease Nurse – to meet emerging needs in refugee health. • One-half time FNP II for refugee health • Office Assistant – This position will support refugee and immigrant health in Health Promotion. • Dental Hygienist for Smart Start and increase in clinical services • Increase in dental hygienist hours State funding increases from 07-08 will continue, however, federal funding may be cut. The County general fund request is a 19% increase over last year. Revenues from grant funding are anticipated to be similar to last year. The total budget requested is $8,093,623, an increase of $1,074,229 or 15.3%; a good part of this is previously unfunded capital requests. The capital requests include funding to implement the new HIS system and two new vehicles for home visitors. The home visiting staff has been using county fleet vehicles, however, there are fewer available and reimbursement for use of personal vehicles does not cover the operating cost. In addition, there is a host of unfunded capital items for dental health Dr. Carey asked if the HIS system was closer to being rolled out by the state. The pilot counties will be rolled out in April, several more in June, and the rest of the counties will be included by September, 2008. He also stated that he felt it was wise to make the Immigrant and Refugee a separate unit and more visible. Upon Board action, the budget request will be forwarded to the County Manager for consideration in preparing the total county budget request to the Board of Commissioners. If the Board wishes to make changes in April it can still do so and have them forwarded. Board members thanked the staff for their hard work and commended them for presenting a lot of information in an understandable format. Motion to approve the fee schedules as presented in the 2007-2008 budget request and forward to Commissioners for approval was made by Matt Vizithum, seconded by Ernie Dodson, and carried without dissent, pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. Motion to approve the budget request for fiscal year 2008-2009 for the health department and forward to Commissioners for approval was made by Matt Vizithum, seconded by Ernie Dodson, and carried without dissent, pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. Motion to approve new positions requested for FY2008-2009 with associated revenues and forward to Commissioners for approval; directing that if positions are not approved, revenues associated with earnings by these positions will also be removed from the budget, was made by Matt Vizithum, seconded by Ernie Dodson, and carried without dissent, pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. B. Temporary Food Establishment Permit Fee MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 4 March 27, 2008 NC General Statute 130A-39(g) has been recently clarified for local health departments allowing for fees to be charged for implementing the permitting process for temporary food establishments, or TFE’s. These are vendors that set up at street festivals, mass gatherings, and events such as Hogg Day, Cool Jazz Festival, Carrboro Music Festival, etc. Tom Konsler reported that it takes considerable staff time and resources to conduct inspections. Dr. Carey asked it this applied to events such as church suppers. Tom Konsler stated that this new law applies only to professional vendors and would be applied to each event a vendor participates in. Churches and non-profits are exempt for one-time events. Environmental Health staff has an application process in place to review plans for individual vendors, to issue permits, and to conduct inspections during the events. The events occur primarily outside of normal working hours and require staff to flex time in order to cover the events. Until now, no fees have been charged for providing this service. This fee is being proposed to allow overtime compensation to staff and to defray the administrative cost of processing the applications. Staff will also plan to have an educational session for the event organizers to improve communications and inform them of their obligations. In the past year, there were approximately 49 vendors associated with 5 events in Orange County. Revenue projection for the coming year would be a conservative $1500. The statute allows for a fee to be assessed up to $50 per vendor. The Board concurred that a fee of $50 per vendor was reasonable. Motion to approve a fee of $50 per vendor and forward to the Board of Commissioners for action was made by Tim Carey, seconded by Matt Vizithum, and carried without dissent, pending confirmation at the April BOH meeting. C. Comprehensive Land Use Plan Comments The Planning Department has been involved in a process of updating the comprehensive land use plan for Orange County for about a year. Recently the Board of Health received correspondence with some draft elements of the plan. The Planning Department is soliciting comments from advisory boards to move this phase of the planning process forward. Discussion by the Board suggested deferring to the Environmental Health committee to review the plan and report back to the Board. Tom Konsler and Ernie Dodson volunteered to be on the committee and will report its recommendations to the Board next month. Comments should be forwarded by the Committee to meet the deadline and the Board can add comments next month if desired. D. Informational Items 1. Influenza Update: Wayne Sherman reported that the rate of outbreaks is waning. He reported that 68% of the flu cases were the AHN3 strain. It MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 5 March 27, 2008 peaked in February and has since declined. 2. Accreditation Update: Rosemary Summers gave a brief accreditation update. The document is due April 1 and all policies and procedures will be in place before the site visit. 3. Biosolids Letter to County Manager: Residents of the Bradshaw Quarry area have contacted the Commissioners regarding their concerns about the use of biosolids in their area of the county. Residents would like to see more restrictions put on the permits for biosolids use. It was brought to light that Burlington’s permit had expired and they had been operating under standards of the old permit. They are seeking to renew their permit and retain the level of standards of the expired permit. The Department plans to conduct a study through UNC. Tom Konsler answered questions from Board members. Burlington has higher industrial waste than OWASA in their biosolids 4. Space Update: On March 6 Commissioners voted to proceed with the lease/purchase of the Hillsborough Commons property and directed staff to consider an addition to SHSC to accommodate health department needs as early as it can be afforded. 5. Community and Clinician Partnership for Prevention Research: Donna King reported that the goal of this project is to develop strategies to develop stronger linkages between primary care providers and community agencies, including public health programs, to decrease specific unhealthy behaviors such as poor diet, sedentary behavior, and tobacco use. The project will help primary care providers to refer patients to existing nutrition programs within the department, and will therefore help nutrition meet its service delivery goals. Private provider patients will only be seen by referral as is currently the case. There will be no project-specific activities provided to clients. Such incentives would interfere with the assessment of whether clients would use community resources after referral. The Health Department will receive $100/month for each of the six months of the project to defer the costs of any activities performed in this project. Data collection will include the number of referrals made and the number of referrals completed. No personal health information will be transmitted to the researchers. This project was approved by the Duke University Health System IRB. E. Tracking Form Review The tracking form helps both the Board and staff keep track of upcoming agenda items and projects that will need attention in the coming months. Rosemary Summers noted that the Quarterly Report and Board of Health vacancies would be reviewed at the April meeting. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2008 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 6 March 27, 2008 V. Board Comments/Announcements None VI. Adjournment Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Ernie Dodson, seconded by Tim Carey, and carried without dissent. The next Board of Health meeting will be held on April 24, 2008 at the Hillsborough Town Barn, Hillsborough, North Carolina at 7:00 PM. Respectfully submitted, Rosemary L. Summers, MPH, DrPH Health Director Secretary to the Board