HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH Minutes of 111820 MINUTES
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH
November 18, 2020
ORANGE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT MISSION STATEMENT: To enhance the quality
Hof life, promote the health, and preserve the environment for all people in the Orange County
community.
THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MET ON November 18, 2020 virtually via Go
To Meeting.
BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS PRESENT: Jessica Frega — Chair, Sam Lasris —Vice-Chair,
Keith Bagby, Bruce Baldwin, Brian Crandell, Aparna Jonnal, Commissioner Earl McKee, Lee
Pickett, Shielda Rodgers, Timothy Smith and Alison Stuebe.
BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS ABSENT: None.
STAFF PRESENT: Quintana Stewart, Health Director; Tonya Diaz-Arroyo, Medical Office
Assistant; Dr. Stephanie George, Dentist; Victoria Hudson, Environmental Health Director;
Donna King, Health Promotion & Education Services Director; Dr. Monica Meng-Haggerty,
Dental Director; Tiffany Lea, PHN I; Beverly Scurry, BOH Strategic Plan Manager; and La Toya
Strange, Administrative Support I.
GUESTS PRESENT: None.
I. Welcome New Employees
Jessica Frega, Chair, called the meeting to order. Ms. Stewart, Health Director, introduced the
new employees in attendance, Tonya Diaz-Arroyo, Dr. Monica Meng-Haggerty and Tiffany Lea.
II. Public Comment for Items NOT on Printed Agenda: None.
III. Approval of the November 18, 2020 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 October 23, 2020 Meeting
There was a clerical error in the titled date on the agenda.
Motion was made by Bruce Baldwin to approve the minutes of October 2020, seconded
by Alison Stuebe and carried without dissent.
B. 2021 Board of Health Schedule
Motion was made by Alison Stuebe to approve the 2021 Board of Health schedule,
seconded by Shielda Rodgers and carried without dissent.
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V. Educational Sessions
A. Customer Satisfaction Survey
Dr. Stephanie George, Dentist, presented the results from the Dental Health Services patient
satisfaction surveys that were collected. The surveys were sent using Solutionreach patient
engagement software via text or email one day after the client's visit. There was an 11%
response rate with 51 responses received since May 2020. The surveys were also provided at
checkout from August 25t" through September 1 It
with 19 Spanish and 20 English collected.
Some of the results included:
• 95% (English paper surveys), 95% (Spanish paper surveys) were satisfied with overall
experience;
100% (English paper surveys), 100% (Spanish paper surveys) agreed front desk staff
and dentists were courteous and responsive to needs; and
• 95% were satisfied with interpretation services.
While majority of the responses were positive, two "needs improvement" comments from the
Spanish surveys were the lack of availability of appointments and requesting that dental
assistants have a little more patience with children and trying more to make them feel safe and
not afraid. The English surveys had one "needs improvement" comment that also mentioned
the length of time to get an appointment.
Victoria Hudson, Environmental Health Director, began by stating that only 89 responses were
received which is considerably lower than the usual average number of 150-170 responses the
division receives. Ms. Hudson stated that there was almost an even response rate over the four
quarters; however, there were less Food and Lodging responses. There is a link to the
customer service survey on the Environmental Health (EH) webpage and in the signature line of
all EH staff. Some of their results included respondents expressing rates of general satisfaction
of 90% excellent and 10% good.
The EH division worked on increasing staff promptness and response time over the past year
starting at the: 1) inception of the initial evaluation of any application that comes into the EH's
office, 2) the amount of time it takes to do any background research, 3) any field visits and/or
investigations, any potential legal analysis of proposed operations and 4) the time to generate
reports, site plans, etc.
Ms. Hudson stated that the EH division accomplished the goal of making their delivery of
services as seamless as possible after COVID response. Some targets for 2020-2021 include
to improve perceptions about response time by 25%, increase submittal rate by 10% for On-Site
Water Protection (OSWP) and to increase the submittal rate by 25% for Food and Lodging
Inspections (FLI).
The BOH members had questions that were addressed by Dr. George.
B. Mobile Dental Van Update
Dr. Monica Meng-Haggerty, new Dental Director, began by introducing herself to the Board.
The Mobile Dental Van (MDV) will be housed at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel
Hill in a designated parking area for which construction started last week. The anticipated finish
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date for the project is mid-January. There will also be power and water hookups. The DMV
needs the installation of computers, Wi-Fi, and other smaller equipment, some of which still
needs to be ordered.
The manufacturer of the DMV still needs to make another trip to conduct more training on how
to take care of and maintain the DMV. The Dental Clinic's interim office manager and dental
hygienist, Caroline Shumaker and Sallie Fudge, respectively, are currently working on
paperwork for the DMV's administrative and clinical needs. Dr. Meng-Haggerty provided a short
array of pictures of the DMV.
The BOH members had questions that were addressed by Dr. Meng-Haggerty.
VI. Action Items (Non-Consent)
A. Elections (Chair & Vice-Chair)
The Board members shall elect a Chair and Vice-Chair by majority vote each year at the last
meeting of the calendar year.
Motion to elect Sam Lasris to Chair and Bruce Baldwin to Vice-Chair for the 2021
calendar year was made by Alison Stuebe, seconded by Aparna Jonnal and carried
without dissent.
Vill. Reports and Discussion with Possible Action
A. Health Director Report
In addition to her report, Ms. Stewart spoke briefly on the general items below.
• She highlighted the virtual UNC PHield Trip and thanked staff for their coordination and
participation.
• She spoke about the recording of the 2nd Public Health Chat this month, which included
both OC districts' school superintendents. Ms. Hudson and Roberto Diaz, EH Specialist,
talked about food safety.
• She mentioned Governor's Cooper November 10th announcement that NC would remain
in Phase 3 until December 4th and the mass gathering limit for indoors decreasing to a
maximum of 10. The signing of an amendment to the Declaration of State of Emergency
in Orange County by BOCC Chair, Commissioner Penny Rich on November 12th to align
with the Governor's Executive Order 176 issued on November 1011 was also briefly
mentioned.
• Lastly, she touched on the CDC's change in criteria for length of isolation.
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,
o There are 3,572 confirmed cases and 61 deaths in OC.
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o There were 197 new cases in the last 7 days, an average of 28 cases daily.
• The ED visits are starting to decrease.
• Hospitalizations are starting to increase as well as the percent positive for tests.
It is currently at 3.5%, still below the ideal percentage of 5% or less.
• The OCHD is ramping up our testing. In the 1st week of November, we had a record
high for our testing herein the county. There were 5,700 individuals tested. Asa result
of the increased testing, some comments and complaints regarding delays in the results
were received. StarMed has onboarded a second lab in Greenville in which our samples
are being sent. They self-report a turnaround time of 21 hours.
• We have on boarded a new testing vendor, OptumServe, via another resource from the
state. They are holding testing events at the R7 Lot on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd in
Chapel Hill, Monday through Friday from 9am-5pm. We've requested more staff to man
that site due to the volume of individuals wanting to be tested. We continue to have
daily testing at our Hillsborough site as well.
• There is a new COVID County System Alert. Orange County is currently yellow status,
meaning we still have significant community spread with low impact. Overall, we are
maintaining and doing fairly well in comparison to some of the other counties in the
state. The criteria are set to align with the White House Taskforce and how they're
doing their reporting. The criteria is determined by:
o the test rates in the last 14 days per 100k people
o the percent positive —greater than 10% is critical and equals red, 8-10% equals
orange, less than 8% equals yellow
o hospital impact— composite based score comprised of the percentage of COVID
hospitalizations, COVID ED visits and staffing to cover open beds
• This Friday, Ms. Stewart will be meeting with the County Manager and the Emergency
Services Director to discuss our thresholds and whether we need to consider
implementation of different mitigation strategies as our COVID cases continue to
increase. There will also be meetings regarding the vaccination distribution and storage
process.
C. Media Items
Ms. Stewart mentioned that the articles in the Board packet which were just a selection of the
numerous COVI D-1 9-related articles that were gathered by our Communications Manager,
Kristin Prelipp, who is out on vacation. Included in the Board's packet were articles regarding
the courthouse's shutdown due to COVID-19 exposure, higher COVID case numbers in the
Triangle area with lower numbers in rural parts of the state and safe holiday practices.
Media items were in the packet which focused on Orange County's events and our
involvement in various efforts.
At 8:14pm, Bruce Baldwin motioned to move into closed session and Sam Lasris
seconded.
Vill. Closed Session to Discuss Health Directors's Annual Review
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During the closed session, the Board of Health discussed the Quintana Stewart's annual
review. Commissioner Earl McKee did not participate in the the closed session.
IX. Adjourn to Open Session
Sam Lasris motioned to move from closed to open session at 8:51pm and Shielda
Rodgers seconded.
X. Board Comments
The Board indicated that, last year, their only concerns were to ensure that they were supportive
of Ms. Stewart, that Ms. Stewart had access to any training opportunities required and for her to
not experience any burnout. The Board continued by expressing positive comments and
compliments of Ms. Stewart's performance as health director especially throughout the
Coronavirus pandemic. Ms. Stewart responded by affirming that she felt supported by the
Board and does maintain a work/life balance. Ms. Stewart also conveyed her appreciation for
having a great support team which included her staff, the County Manager and Emergency
Management Services.
Ms. Frega stated that she will follow up with Human Resources regarding the completion of the
performance review paperwork.
XI. Adjournment
Alison Stuebe moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:06pm and Shielda Rodgers seconded.
The next Board of Health Meeting will be held January 27, 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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