HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH Final Minutes of March 24, 2021 with edit MINUTES - Draft
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH
March 24, 2021
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 24, 2021 virtually via Go To
Meeting.
BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS PRESENT: Sam Lasris — Chair, Bruce Baldwin —Vice-Chair,
Keith Bagby, Brian Crandell, Jessica Frega, Commissioner Jean Hamilton, Aparna Jonnal, Lee
Pickett, Timothy Smith and Alison Stuebe.
BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS ABSENT: Shielda Rodgers.
STAFF PRESENT: Quintana Stewart, Health Director; Rebecca Crawford, Financial and
Administrative Services Director; Victoria Hudson, Environmental Health Director; Carla Julian,
HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer, Compliance/Risk Manager; Dr. Monica Meng-Haggerty,
Dental Director; Ian Olson, Environmental Health Specialist; Kristin Prelipp, Communications
Manager; Beverly Scurry, BOH Strategic Plan Manager; and La Toya Strange, Administrative
Support I.
GUESTS PRESENT: None.
I. Welcome New Employees
Sam Lasris, Chair, called the meeting to order. Ms. Stewart, Health Director, introduced the
new employees, Ian Olson and Kojo Minta (not in attendance).
II. Public Comment for Items NOT on Printed Agenda: None.
III. Approval of the March 24, 2021 Agenda
Motion was made by Alison Stuebe to approve the agenda, seconded by Bruce Baldwin
and carried without dissent.
IV. Action Items (Consent)
A. Minutes of February 24, 2021 Meeting
Motion was made by Lee Pickett to approve the minutes of February 2021, seconded by
Alison Stuebe and carried without dissent.
V. Educational Sessions
A. Cardinal innovations Update
After a brief introduction of himself, Elliot Clark, Cardinal Innovations Regional Affairs Director,
gave an update on the services that providing a year snapshot. Below are some
highlights.
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Medicaid and State — Under and uninsured
o Mr. Clark presented graphs that displayed fiscal year data pertaining to the:
o Number of members served by age and diagnosis
o Members served and expenses by service category
o Registry of unmet needs
o Members served and expense amounts — crisis services
■ Slight decrease in mobile crisis management in the pandemic; more
services were provided virtually;
■ Vast majority without insurance account for the most utilization of these
services
o Top 10 providers that serve Orange County
• Local Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Contribution
o OC contributes approximately $1.3 million annually. The budget has remained
static.
o OC has also set aside a portion of the MOE funding for various programs that
address community interests in which Cardinal Innovations manages.
• Offered almost $2 million of COVID-19 Relief Fund
o Twenty-two Orange County entities applied and were awarded funding. Some of
these funds addressed rental assistance, food insecurity, etc.
• Two councils —
o The Regional Health Council meets quarterly to bring together people from five
counties to discuss and prioritize the needs of those areas, develops a Regional
Health Improvement Plan (RHIP), and oversees implementation of the plan.
o Community Advisory Council (CAC) serves as an avenue for individuals in the
community (members, families, providers, and stakeholders) to present the
needs of the community to the Regional Health Councils. Additionally, the CAC
will be tasked with completing the goals of the Regional Health Improvement
Plan (RHIP) on the local level.
The BOH members had questions that were addressed by Mr. Clark.
B. OCHD Equity Update
Beverly Scurry, BOH Strategic Manager, gave some updates on the ongoing equity work in the
health department. Below is a brief summary.
• The Racial Equity Commission (REC) is working on updating the Strategic Plan to make
sure it's in alignment with the county equity plan and the OCHD Strategic Plan.
• Affinity caucusing continues monthly and is still being led by staff.
• A staff library with books and resources for OCHD staff to check out is ready; however, it
hasn't gone live yet.
• At the end of February, a Health Equity webpage was launched.
• The Health Equity Council continues to meet. They're currently focusing on education
and awareness for organizations and boards and the clients that our community partners
serve.
• The Health & Human Services Consulting group consists of staff from various OC
departments and community residents. This group helped reduce language and
transportation barriers and has worked with community partners to get residents in their
communities registered.
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• UNC Capstone team —
o Created a staff assessment at the beginning of this year with the analysis coming
soon.
o Are creating a department wide standard 360 evaluation department wide that
will align with the OC Human Resources' (OCHR) PERFORM system.
o Created a racial equity curriculum. The REC team will facilitate the curriculum.
• Countywide efforts —
o OCHR created a Diversity Equity & Inclusion Leadership Team.
o Through OCHR and Human Rights & Relations, staffs from various OC
departments have joined Government Alliance on Racial Equity.
The BOH members had questions that were addressed by Ms. Scurry.
VI. Action Items (Non-Consent)
A. BOH Appointments
Timothy Smith will be vacating his seat as the Engineering representative at the end of his term
in June 2021. Sam Lasris, Chair, mentioned that a small ad hoc committee would be formed to
look at applications and conduct interviews to fill the Engineering position. Board members,
Bruce Baldwin, Aparna Jonnal, Timothy Smith and Jessica Frega, will be joining Dr. Lasris on
that committee.
The Board of Health voted to recommend Bruce Baldwin to his 2nd full term, Alison Stuebe to
her 1 st full term and Keith Bagby to his 2nd full term. As the Board decided on one motion for the
reappointment of all three members, each of them abstained on the vote in regards to voting on
their own reappointments.
Motion to reappointment Bruce Baldwin, Alison Stuebe and Keith Bagby and forward to
the Board of County Commissioners was made by Aparna Jonnal, seconded by Jessica
Frega, and carried without dissent.
B. FY 21-22 Budget— 2nd Review
The Board approved the budget at last month's Board meeting; however, the motion didn't
mention that it was approved with the Board's requested changes. Ms. Rebecca Crawford,
Financial and Administrative Services Director, presented the requested changes and another
vote was taken. Victoria Hudson, Environmental Health Director, addressed questions and
concerns from Board member, Brian Crandell, about Environmental Health fee increases.
Motion to approve the requested amount of$10,759,555 for FY21-22 as presented with
edits and corrections as noted at the February 241 Board of Health meeting and forward
to the County Manager and Board of County Commissioners for action was made by
Alison Stuebe, seconded by Timothy Smith and carried without dissent. Commissioner
Jean Hamilton abstained from the vote.
The BOH members had questions that were addressed by Ms. Crawford.
C. BOH Manual Update/Review
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The BOH Manual was approved; however, the subcommittee titles weren't updated. The BOH
Manual has been updated with the current subcommittees and its members.
Motion to approve the BOH Manual with the updated subcommittees listed was made by
Jessica Frega, seconded by Alison Stuebe and carried without dissent.
Vill. Reports and Discussion with Possible Action
A. Health Director Report
In addition to her report, some of items Ms. Stewart highlighted are below.
• Ms. Stewart thanked Commissioner Hamilton as she read the BOCC approved
Resolution Recognizing March 3, 2021 as a Day of Reflection, Commemorating the First
North Carolinian Diagnosed with COVID-19 during the BOCC meeting.
• Ms. Stewart thanks the BOH for their hard work and feedback on the Outside Agency
applications. The meetings with the Outside Agencies were held on March 9th and 11th
to discuss their funding applications. The BOCC will determine how much is awarded
and to whom.
• A small OCHD Staff Appreciation Day was held on March 20th at the RR Lot. All staff
that visited received a boxed lunch and a COVID-19 t-shirt. Some also received their
vaccination. Thanks were also given to Kimberlee Quatrone, Business Officer, for all of
her work in the coordination of this.
• Kudos were given to the Environmental Health staff as they took the lead of facilitating
and coordinating the Business Contest that recognized local businesses for their
COVID-19 safety plans.
• Each winner will receive a trophy and $1000 in advertising support in the form of
advertising on Chapel Hill Transit buses. There were 3 categories:
o Best Business for Customer Safety— 1 st Place — Mina' Hair Salon;
o Best Business for Employee Safety— 15t Place — Present Day on Main; and
o Overall Best Business— MVP - Franklin Street Yoga.
• House Bill 196 cleared the House and Senate chambers. The legislation appropriates
$84 million in federal CDC-ELC funding to the local health departments. It also defines
how these funds are to be allocated across the 85 local health departments. Counties
will receive these additional funds to support public health based solely on population.
B. COVID-19 Update
Quintana Stewart, Health Director, gave an update on the COVID-19 status in Orange County
(OC) as well as took questions from the Board. Some highlights are below.
• As of today, there are 7,961 OC confirmed cases and 99 deaths in OC related to
COVID.
• There were 94 new cases in the last 7 days.
• OCHD has not received a call from the state saying that we have a variant strand
identified in OC. That doesn't mean that it's not here, but that it hasn't been picked up
by the State Lab as they do surveillance testing.
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• At the Governor's Briefing on yesterday, he announced that we've plateaued.
• Small spikes in cases causes include —
o Some people that are fully vaccinated are not wearing their masks.
o Students are returning from Spring break.
• CDC announced new guidance around fully vaccinated people on March 8m
o Fully vaccinated people can visit other fully vaccinated people indoors without
wearing a mask or social distancing.
o Fully vaccinated people can visit with unvaccinated people from a single household
that are at low risk for severe COVID disease indoors without wearing a mask or
social distancing and can refrain from quarantine and testing following an exposure if
they remain asymptomatic.
o You are considered fully vaccinated 2 weeks after your 2nd dose or after the Johnson
& Johnson vaccination.
• Ms. Stewart reiterated to still wear your masks, social distancing and wash your hands
• In OC, 30.6% (45,383 people) of the population have received their 1st dose; while,
20.8% (30,810 people) have received their 2nd dose/fully vaccinated.
• Our Health & Human Services Consulting group has helped our efforts in being
intentional and removing barriers to help those historically underserved populations get
vaccinated by working with community partners and churches. The OC OPT provides
transportation. There is also a mobile clinic unit that goes out and vaccinates those
populations that are homebound and/or unsheltered. Some data around equity and
those historically underserved populations that were vaccinated:
o Source of data — NC DHHS. They're data includes all of the providers in OC.
■ 0.3% American Indian, 6.7% Asian, 8.7 Black/African-American, 77% White,
6.1% Hispanic, 5.6% Other
o Source of data —OCHD. This data only includes the clinics/PODs the OCHD
facilitated and the vaccines administered by the OCHD.
■ 0.42% American Indian (0.7% of OC pop.), 4.28% Asian (8.5% of OC pop.),
18.56% (12.4% of OC pop.), 68.84% White (78% of OC pop.), 10.2%
Hispanic (9% of OC pop.), 6.93% (9% of OC pop.)
• County Alert System
o As of March 18th, there is only 1 red tier county in the state. There are 82 counties in
yellow (including Orange County) and 17 in the orange tier.
• Friday at 5pm, the Governor's Executive Order 204 takes effect.
o Mask mandate remains the same for indoor and in public settings.
o Some businesses capacities will increase.
■ Lower risks (e.g. retail shopping, childcare camps, outdoor playgrounds,
museums) will go to full capacity.
■ Medium risks (e.g. gyms, pools, amusement parks, wineries) will increase to
full capacity outside while maintain social distancing rules. Their indoor
capacity will increase to 75%.
■ Higher risks (e.g. conference spaces, bars, gaming, movie theaters, sports
arenas)will increase to 50%.
o Mass gathering limits also increase.
■ 25 to 50 people indoor
■ 50 to 100 people outdoors.
o Restrictions on late night sale of alcohol will be lifted.
C. Media Items
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Kristin Prelipp, Communications Manager, mentioned that the articles in the Board packet were
just a selection of the numerous COVID-19-related articles that were gathered. Included in the
Board's packet were articles from ABC11 regarding the COVID-19 vaccine waitlist, the Herald
Sun erroneously reporting that OC reported zero cases that was based on the state's system
not being fully updated and an article about our new vaccine registration system (Everbridge).
Lastly, Ms. Prelipp spoke about the 6x9 inch postcard English on the front and Spanish on the
back. The second round of postcards will include a QR code with access to Burmese, Karen,
Swahili, Chinese and Arabic languages. The card will mention the basics such as where people
can get the vaccine including the OCHD and the ease of signing up. It also mentions the NC
DHHS' website, Myspot.nc.gov. There are also some facts about the COVID-19 vaccines to
dispel some worries that have been heard in the community. For example, the fact that the
vaccine does not change DNA and will not affect fertility. The postcards will be widely
distributed including at testing and vaccine sites and inside of food boxes.
Media items were in the packet which focused on Orange County's events and our
involvement in various efforts.
Vill. Board Comments
None.
IX. Adjournment
Jessica Frega moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:53pm and Timothy Smith seconded.
The next Board of Health Meeting will be held April 28, 2021 at 7:00pm via Go To Meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Quintana Stewart, MPA
Orange County Health Director
Secretary to the Board
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