Board of Health Minutes

II. Jean Cook Hughes moved to approve the Agenda. It was seconded by L.J. McKeown and approved unanimously.

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V. Medical Report.

Dr. Harrington reported that he has been contacted by the Center for Disease Control and they were quite interested in the 22 people who were exposed to African Histoplasmosis while on their trip to Morocco. He is in the process of collecting data.

VI. Consent Agenda

VII. Resolutions

Charles Seifert inquired as to whether we have a reviewer. Ginger indicated that we have none available at this time. He also inquired if it would be to the Health Department' s benefit to seek additional funding since we are obviously having significant problems in infant mortality in Calhoun County. Ginger indicated that there is a need to take a closer look at the data. She stated that although most people think pre-natal care is the biggest issue, our statistics indicate that the health of women prior to pregnancy and then the first year of life are actually the greater risk points. Another area that is very troubling is the disparity between infant mortality in African Americans and whites. She said that is an issue that deserves a closer look but the FIMR team does not have resources for that at this time. She stated that the real emphasis should be on prevention. There are additional research dollars and community action dollars.

Charles Seifert inquired as to what is being done to pursue those dollars. Ginger told him that we have applied to Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation and we were not asked to come back and we have also applied to the March of Dimes and the CJ Foundation for Sids. Heidi also added that we have looked at data that exists within the community and getting people together to look at what we already collect. They also collect a lot of information at the hospital when people come in to deliver and Judy has been working on a task force to look at that. We have also been trying to take advantage of the 211 health care call center to find out what kind of questions they get and where these people get lost in the system.

Ben Miller indicated that because Great Choices is voluntary, with a need for a permission slip from the parents, perhaps we are not reaching the kids who need it the most. He wanted to know if there had been discussion with the school districts about implementing this program within a regular class or anything along that line. Ginger responded that because of state law, PA 226, some of the contents of Great Choices is not within what is allowed. She said that during the summer, Great Choices is trying to reach some of the kids outside of the school setting. We do ask the counselors to identify students who they think benefit from the series.

VIII. Finance Report

Jim Latham reported that we are nine months through the fiscal year and appear to be on target. The bottom line is that we have excess expenditures over revenues of $112,000. That is better than last month. We are catching up on the receipt of some of the revenue. However, there are still outstanding items - the cigarette tax money which is received late in the fiscal year and the moneys from the McKinney grant. He indicated that by putting those items in, we are coming out to the good by $38,000. At this point in time, it does not appear that there will be a deficit for the year.

IX. Other Business

In reference to the interim report by Rehmann Robson, it was requested that the Board receive copies of the managers' job descriptions when completed.

Heidi reported to the Board that there is a problem in the family planning program. She indicated that she would like to pursue subcontracting part of our caseload directly with Planned Parenthood here and maintain our current caseload out in Marshall and Albion. Heidi said that she could tell the State to reduce our caseload to whatever we are serving in Marshall and Albion.

When asked why Planned Parenthood would want to take over our caseload, Heidi responded that Planned Parenthood would want to accept the additional because the funding would help them meet their needs since they are already seeing more people than they are funded for. She said that she thinks it would be easier if the State just contracted directly with Planned Parenthood but she understands reluctance to totally remove the Health Department from family planning; possibly there could be an intermediate step where we could have some control. However, it might be difficult because of the responsibility of doing the reporting.

George Perrett indicated his support of Heidi to move forward on the matter. He indicated that he preferred that the State directly fund Planned Parenthood on their caseload because of the fact that the Health Department would assume certain fiduciary responsibility if the Department acts as a fiduciary agent; he would like the Health Department disassociated from service related complications for those dollars.

Ben Miller indicated that he feels that the Health Department should still be involved and should still have a role in the family planning program with Planned Parenthood because he feels that the Health Department should still have some oversight and knowledge of how the clientele is being served.

George Perrett indicated that he would like to see Heidi negotiate some way that the Health Department can provide or maintain an oversight capability to make sure that the clientele is being served, i.e. a monthly report from Planned Parenthood. The concern of both George Perrett and Ben Miller is to see that there is continued service and that the current Health Department clientele does not get lost in the shuffle. Heidi agreed to explore contracting options and obligations.

XI. Adjournment: Chairman Anderson adjourned the meeting at 9:20 a.m.