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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH minutes 020300MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 3, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Phyllis R. Privette 1 February 3, 2000 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 THURSDAY, February 3, 2000 at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This was the regularly scheduled January 27, 2000 meeting that was cancelled due to weather. BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS PRESENT: Barry Adler, Barbara Chavious, Ron Cammarata, Mel Hurston, Tim Ives, Jonathan Klein, Rick Marinshaw, Janet Southerland, and Martha Stucker. BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS ABSENT: Brenda Crowder-Gaines and Barry Jacobs. STAFF PRESENT: Rosemary Summers, Health Director; Ron Holdway, Environmental Health Division Director; Eileen Kugler, Personal Health Division Director; John Sauls, Animal Control Division Director; Eugene Sandler, Director of Dental Clinic, Angela Cooke, Dental Coordinator; Cornelia Ramsey, Health Educator and Phyllis Privette, Administrative Assistant. GUESTS PRESENT: Joan Terry, Clerk of Superior Court I. CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS Dr. Klein called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and asked members to introduce themselves since there was a new board member present. Ms. Martha Stucker, the new nurse representative to the Board of Health was sworn in by Joan Terry, Clerk of Superior Court of Orange County. Dr. Klein presented plaques to Dr. Tim Ives and Ms. Barbara Chavious for their service on the Board of Health. Both members will be rotating off the Board of Health and each member spoke a few words about their work as Board members. II. Action Items A. Adoption of Agenda (presented as mailed agenda of January 27, 2000) and approval of November 18, 1999 minutes. The minutes of the November 18, 1999 meeting were noted to have several typographical and formatting errors, which need to be corrected. The motion to approve the Agenda presented as January 27, 2000 for this February 3, 2000 meeting and approve the Minutes of November 18, 1999 as amended was made by Rick Marinshaw and seconded by Mel Hurston and carried without dissent. B. Pharmacist Appointment to the Board of Health Dr. Tim Ives, Chair of the Committee along with Eileen Kugler and Rosemary Summers screened and interviewed two applicants, Catherine Shetzline and Lee Werley, III. The Committee agreed that Mr. Werley was the candidate of choice. The motion to recommend Lee Werley as the pharmacist representative to the MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 3, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Phyllis R. Privette 2 February 3, 2000 Board of Health was made by Tim Ives and seconded by Barbara Chavious. The motion carried unanimously. C. At-Large Appointment to the Board of Health Barbara Chavious, Chair of the Committee for the At-Large appointment, along with Mel Hurston, Brenda Crowder-Gaines, and Rosemary Summers screened all 27 applicants and selected two applicants, Sandra Quinn and Tarsha Franklin. The committee was not able to do a follow-up interview because of the inclement weather. It was the unanimous agreement of committee members that Sandra Quinn was the candidate of choice. The motion to recommend Sandra Quinn as the at-large representative to the Board of Health was made by Barbara Chavious and seconded by Mel Hurston. The motion carried unanimously. D. Board Reimbursement Fee A reimbursement fee for Board members was recommended to be set at $25 per Board member per month and $30 per month was recommended for the chair. This is intended to equalize the reimbursement between northern and southern board members. Board members must be present at the regular monthly meeting to be eligible for that month's reimbursement. There was some discussion around setting a higher fee for the vice-chair as well/ A motion to approve the reimbursement levels of $25 per member per month and $30 for the chair with members required to be present at the monthly meeting to qualify for the reimbursement was made by Mel Hurston and seconded by Tim Ives. The motion carried without dissent. III. Reports/Action from Committees: A. Executive Committee 1. Role of Nominating Committee It was proposed that this committee should be created to nominate a slate of officers for the annual election in November and that this committee form the core group that solicits, reviews and recommends new candidates for the Board. The committee would be composed of the Vice-Chair of the Board who would act as the Committee Chair and two additional Board members. The "retiring" Board member may also participate in the selection process of the new member to be appointed in that slot, if they wish. A motion to approve the charge and structure of the Nominating Committee was made by Martha Stucker and seconded by Barbara Chavious. The motion carried without dissent. Martha Stucker and Barry Adler volunteered to be members of the Nominating Committee since they will not be up for reappointment during this year. The board approved without dissent. Rosemary Summers mentioned that the next vacancies would occur on the board June 30, 2000. 2. Committee/Board Processes for 2000 Dr. Klein reminded the Board of a retreat held several years ago where the Board decided to conduct more work in committees in order to streamline and make the work of the Board more efficient. The proposal from the Chair and Vice-Chair is to refer all contracts, grants, and other items that may require in-depth examination to the Committees that were appointed in MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 3, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Phyllis R. Privette 3 February 3, 2000 November. Each Committee would examine the issues and make recommendations to the full Board on action. No Committee will be authorized to make decisions on behalf of Board with the exception of the Executive Committee as defined in the by-laws. This is intended to allow more time at Board meetings for substantive policy discussion rather than attention to details. Several Board members made the point that this will be effective only to the extent that committee discussions are not re-created in their entirety at the Board meeting. It was acknowledged that this would require some practice on the part of the Board. Rosemary Summers pointed out that this would increase the load for staff in preparing for, staffing, and following-up on additional meetings. Since these are official Committees of the Board they are subject to all provisions of the open meetings law. Several modifications to the original committee list of November were noted. Martha Stucker asked to serve on the Dental Health and Personal Health Committee. Barry Jacobs asked to serve on the Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee. Sandra Quinn will replace Barbara Chavious on the Animal Control and Environmental Health Committe. Lee Werley will replace Tim Ives on the Dental Health and Personal Health Committee. Ron Cammarata and Rick Marinshaw will co-chair the Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee. Janet Southerland and Mel Hurston will co-chair the Dental Health and Personal Health Committee. Committees were encouraged to establish a regular meeting schedule and place to simplify the public notification process. 3. Report to Commissioners The attachment in the Board packet was sent to the Board of Commissioners in December. The goals are the same ones that the Board of Health adopted last year. Several completion dates were changed on some of the milestones in the goals. In addition, the Commissioners requested information from each advisory board or commission that they appoint for their annual retreat. The Commissioners held their retreat in January. The two-page report is attached for the Board's information. 4. Staff Recognition Breakfast It was proposed that the Board sponsor an event for a limited number of Health Department staff that recognizes outstanding performance and accomplishments. A breakfast was suggested to be funded through Board member contribution. Senior management staff would select about 20 staff to recognize. Martha Stucker indicated that the Board member contribution should not be set so high that it became a burden to a Board member that might be low income and not be able to contribute. Tim Ives suggested that the Board members could simply contribute their reimbursement for the month to the event. The type of event, timing, and costs were not decided. A motion to approve the concept of an annual staff recognition event was made by Mel Hurston and seconded by Martha Stucker. The motion was carried without dissent. C. Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee 1. Animal Protection Society Shelter Procedures Review Ron Cammarata reported on the first meeting of the Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee that was held January 14, 2000. The Committee set a regular meeting schedule. The next meeting is February 10 from 4-6 p.m. The Committee began its work with a review of MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 3, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Phyllis R. Privette 4 February 3, 2000 the Adoption Guidelines portion of the Animal Shelter Procedures. This was in response to a citizen complaint regarding the adoption guidelines. After the adoption guideline section is finished, the Committee plans to review all the elements of the contract between the Animal Protection Society (APS) and the County regarding the operation of the Animal Shelter. The Committee will make recommendations to the Board. The current plan is to have the work completed by the March Board meeting. Rosemary Summers noted that the Board of Health would then consider these recommendations and decide whether to forward them to the Commissioners for consideration. Some recommendations may be to the APS. Neither the Board of Health nor the Commissioners can force the APS to make changes in their policies. The Commissioners can decide whether or not to renew the contract with the APS and can include certain stipulations as part of the contract. D. Dental and Personal Health Committee 1. Eligibility and Fee Policies for Personal Health Services The Committee met for the first time this year just prior to the Board meeting. Janet Southerland and Mel Hurston were by common consent chosen as co-chairs of the Committee. A regular meeting schedule was proposed and approved by the Committee. The primary agenda item for the Committee was consideration of eligibility and fee policies for personal health services. The necessity of unbundling costs for Medicaid billing on July 1, 2000 has been one of the prime thrusts for instituting a full billing process for all patients in personal health. The majority of the services have heretofore been free. The Committee and the Board had a fairly extensive discussion regarding establishing a sliding fee scale, establishing fees for all services, the proposed bad debt policy and the concept of a minimum fee that would be charged in allowable programs. Rosemary Summers informed the Board that the department is expecting a consulting firm to conduct a cost study that will allow us to establish costs for each procedure code. This will allow us to propose a fee schedule that reflects actual costs. It was the general consensus of the Board that they wished to act on the specific policies at the same time that a fee schedule was proposed. Since the budget preparation will in part depend on whether the Board supports the concept of charging fees or not, staff requested the Board to provide direction in this regard. Mel Hurston stated that he felt that this was the responsible direction to move in. He felt that everyone should take some responsibility for paying for services and that it was the Board's responsibility to be good stewards of the tax dollars allocated. Establishing fees and a collection policy was a step in the right direction. A motion to support the concept of eligibility and fee policies and the establishment of a minimum fee for allowable services was made by Barbara Chavious and seconded by Mel Hurston. The motion passed without dissent. 2. Reorganization of Personal Health Services Rosemary Summers reported on the reorganization of personal health services utilizing the organizational charts provided in the Board packet. The goal of the reorganization was to clarify the services offered to the public, increasing the effectiveness of staff in all program areas, and to emphasize and highlight the core functions and essential services of the Department. The reorganization was intended to be position and revenue neutral, that is no new positions would be created and no positions would be lost. To the extent possible as duties and supervisory lines are shifted the intention is to leave positions close to their current classification levels as possible. The reorganization will shift resources to create a new division entitled: Health Promotion and Health Education Services Division. It was decided that this was necessary because the MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 3, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Phyllis R. Privette 5 February 3, 2000 functions and duties of this area are related to all of the divisions in the department. Two positions were transferred from Personal Health and two were transferred from Management to create the division. The Management Division was renamed "Central Administrative Services Division" and received a permanent transfer of the medical office assistants, a community health assistant, and an administrative assistant. This division will be responsible for centralized word processing support, personnel support, accounting, purchasing, inventory control, records imaging, billing, patient records, and patient registration and appointments. The Personal Health Services Division is now comprised of three primary sections: Clinical Services, Community Services and Family Support Services. This will enable a clearer separation of clinical services from the home-visiting services. The intent over the next year is to integrate clinical services so that the department is providing fewer categorical days of service in both locations. The structure as proposed allows for greater on-site accountability and responsibility of each clinical setting. Community Services includes the School Health Program and the Communicable Disease Program. Shifts in staffing responsibilities should allow more staff time and effort to be devoted to the Communicable Disease Program. The Family Support Services Section includes all of the home visiting and referral programs of the department. Combining these programs and personnel in the same section should encourage client and interagency information sharing. The implementation of the reorganization will be staged over the next several months. Supervisory changes will occur on March 1; minimal clinic integration, budget shifts, and physical changes will occur by the end of April; a plan for long-term clinic integration should be ready for consideration by the summer. No board action is required, this is for information. 3. FY98-99 Personal Health Program Report Due to the lateness of the hour, the Board deferred the program report to the next meeting on February 24, 2000. D. Community Programs Committee 1. FY 98-99 Health Education Program Report Due to the lateness of the hour, the Board deferred the program report to the next meeting on February 24, 2000. VII. Move to Adjourn The motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Mel Hurston, seconded by Barry Adler and was unanimously passed. The next Board of Health meeting will be held on February 24, 2000 at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough. Respectfully submitted, Rosemary L. Summers, MPH, DrPH Health Director Secretary to the Board