Monroe County Health Department observes National Public Health Week

April 3, 2024admin

Monroe County Health Department observes National Public Health Week

MONROE — The Monroe County Health Department is celebrating National Public Health Week through April 7.

“It is a time to recognize the contributions of public health and emphasize the programs and issues important to improving the health of a community,” the health department said in a news release.

All this week, the health department will offer health tips and highlight some of the services it offers to Monroe County. It also will feature local staff on its Facebook and Instagram pages.

The topic for Monday was Public Health. “Public health goes beyond individual healthcare; it’s about clean water, safe food and healthy neighborhoods,” the health department said.

Community recycling is one of the programs offered by the Monroe County Health Department.

The topic for Tuesday was the Community Recycling Program, which offers free recycling and disposal options for residents.

Today’s topic is National Walking Day. “Walking is a free, simple way to boost immunity, reduce stress, improve heart health and strengthen bones and muscles,” the health department said. For a list of community walking trails, visit tinyurl.com/BeActiveCountyMap.

Thursday’s topic is Personal Health Division, which offers immunizations, maternal infant home visits, chronic disease management for children, testing and treatment for infectious diseases and reproductive health care.

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Friday’s topic is Hearing & Vision Program, which offers regular screenings for preschool and school-age children in partnership with all local school districts.

Saturday’s topic is Environmental Health. “The division routinely inspects restaurants, pools and campgrounds; tests drinking and surface water for contaminants; and traps mosquitoes and ticks to test for diseases,” the health department said.

Sunday’s topic is the Emergency Preparedness Program, which “develops and conducts training exercises with local partners to assure that Monroe County can adequately respond to any public health emergency situation,” the health department said.

“We’re encouraging

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Department Health

March 26, 2024admin

Staffing Issues at the County Health Department Are Affecting LA Restaurants

This story mentions a death by suicide.

The Los Angeles Times published a report on March 15, 2024, detailing operational issues impacting the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) and its food safety inspectors. In it, current and former field inspectors say that the department is short-staffed and struggling to fulfill its safety inspection duties, which they allege presents a health hazard to the public. Further, the increased workload and heightened responsibilities have taken a stressful toll on inspectors. The Times report comes in the wake of an inspector who died by suicide in February.

One of the report’s most concerning findings involves the department’s retention numbers, which have decreased dramatically in recent years, leaving fewer people to physically inspect the county’s food-related businesses and restaurants. The dozen current and five former LA County health inspectors interviewed by the Times allege that the department’s current employee retention issues began at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other health departments across the country, LADPH’s inspectors added to its already demanding workload by administering new safety protocols. As a result of these new demands, the report says that many inspectors left the department for other jobs.

A department spokesperson told the Times that the county typically employs 244 field inspectors but currently has 69 vacancies. The health department is having difficulty locating qualified applicants, though 27 inspectors are currently in training. That leaves fewer inspectors tasked with examining food and restaurant safety, as well as rental properties, pet stores, massage establishments, and other businesses in the county.

The Times spoke to Judith Serlin, a representative from Teamsters Local 911, which is a union for workers in the private and public sector, including inspectors. Serlin alleged that management isn’t listening to its field inspectors’ concerns. She told the Times that

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Department Health

March 17, 2024admin

Mobile County Health Department discusses uptick in STD cases

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Talking about STDs is something a lot of people shy away from, but in Mobile County, STD numbers are staggering.

News 5’s Cherish Lombard was joined by Cherrite Peterson and Ashlee Fountain-Jones from the Mobile County Health Department in studio Friday to discuss the rise in sexually transmitted disease cases.

The highest rates of STDs in the country are found in the 20 to 29 age group with a rate above 227% per 100,000 residents.

“So here in Mobile County, we have about 300,000 residents,” Peterson said. “Out of that 300,000, every 100,000, 227% of those people have tested positive for STDs, so that is extremely high for a county such as Mobile. So we’re definitely encouraging people to get tested so that we can get those numbers down.”

Peterson said chlamydia is the most common STD found in Mobile, but it is a treatable STD. She said in 2023, Mobile County saw 4,500 cases of chlamydia.

Mobile County also saw a 3.6% increase in human immunodeficiency virus cases, Peterson said.

Women and young girls are more likely to be impacted by STDs than men or boys.

“So we have more women seeking care,” Fountain-Jones said. “They are going in because they are having more symptoms. They are going in for their GYN exams, and they are getting tested more often.”

Still, many who may have these kinds of issues don’t see a doctor, which can lead to major health problems.

“Yes, it can definitely lead to different things like infertility,” Peterson said.

“Chlamydia, so chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, which is

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Department Health

February 21, 2024admin

New director tapped for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department

Chantell Harmon Reed has been tapped as the new director of public health for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department

Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Tuesday announced its selection of a new director of public health.

Chantell Harmon Reed, a doctoral candidate in public health at Tulane University, was named to serve in the role, one of the two top positions at the department.

Reed, who turns 45 on Saturday, is set to begin her new role March 18, pending confirmation from Tacoma City Council and Pierce County Council.

In September, the Board of Health approved splitting the department’s leadership into two positions, director and health officer.

The two jobs cover the department’s administrative duties and medical background requirements, which were previously rolled into one director position.

The department’s previous director, Dr. Anthony Chen, retired last summer and has been serving on a contract basis to fulfill health officer duties for the department. He will continue in that role until that position is filled, TPCHD said Tuesday.

The department said in its announcemen, “One of Reed’s first job responsibilities will be to complete the final steps to select the next health officer for the health department.”

Reed’s background includes work in public health, administration and compliance, according to TPCHD. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Northwood University in Cedar Hill, Texas, and a master’s degree in healthcare management from the University of New Orleans.

“As the deputy director of the Public Health Division of the Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon, Reed supported COVID-19 recovery efforts, infrastructure improvements and achieving accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board,” the department said in Tuesday’s release.

Her background includes serving on the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute, the Loyola Center for Counseling and Education, and the Oregon Public

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Department Health

January 9, 2024admin

Ottawa County Health Department sees highest staff turnover in 10 years

OTTAWA COUNTY — Nearly 30 employees left the Ottawa County Health Department in 2023, the highest average of permanent employees in a decade, according to newly released data.

Health officials compiled the information and disclosed it to county commissioners after Deputy Health Officer Marcia Mansaray and Health Planning and Promotion Manager Lisa Uganski alerted the Health and Human Services Committee in December the department was struggling to fill open positions.

Adeline Hambley has been the health officer in Ottawa County since December 2022.

“Staffing capacity, hiring and retention issues were being experienced this calendar year in a way we haven’t experienced in previous years,” Mansaray said Dec. 5. “Staff turnover this year is higher in 2023 than in any previous year since 2013.”

At the meeting, Commissioners Gretchen Cosby and Allison Miedema asked Mansaray for data.

“It sounds like you’ve tracked since 2013 the turnover rate for the health department,” Cosby said. “Are we able to get a look at that, would that be something you would provide to the board of commissioners?”

Commissioner Gretchen Cosby sits during public comment Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at the Ottawa County Offices in West Olive.

This week, Mansaray provided those answers, disclosing that 28 people left last year, more than 20% of all full-time employees in the department.

At the Dec. 5 meeting, Mansaray said the department previously saw an average of eight employee separations between 2015 and 2020. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is defined as 2020-2023 for the numbers provided, the highest number of separations was 35 in 2022 — which, at the time, only accounted for 13.6 percent of total full-time employees.

Ottawa County Health Department full-time employee separations for 2013-2023.

Mansaray defined “separations” as those who quit, retired or were fired from employment.

In a Jan. 3 email to the commissioners, Mansaray explained that of the 28, 21 were staff who left permanent positions — 15 quit, five retired and one was fired. Much institutional knowledge was lost, Mansaray said. The remaining seven positions were grant-funded and eliminated

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Department Health

December 27, 2023admin

Can this Michigan county, deeply divided on politics and policy, reach a truce?

Adeline Hambley’s employees at a county health department in Michigan saw her as their protection from political interference by conservative Christians on the county board. Then the board offered her $4 million to quit.

December 23, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Adeline Hambley has been the health officer in Ottawa County, Mich., since December 2022. Shortly after her appointment, new conservative members of the county board began an effort to remove her. (Kristen Norman for The Washington Post)

WEST OLIVE, Mich. — All year, the new conservative Christian majority on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners had been searching for a way to get rid of Adeline Hambley, who ran the west Michigan county’s health department. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

They had discussed firing Hambley, whom they saw as an instrument of government tyranny. But her job came with protections, written into state law, that were intended to insulate her from political influence or retribution.

They had proposed paying Hambley $4 million to leave. She accepted in early November. But the commissioners backed out a few days later when they learned that the payment could damage the county’s bond rating and tank its finances.

Now it was Nov. 14. The commissioners huddled with their lawyers in a windowless conference room at the county’s boxy, brick government complex. Hambley and her lawyer waited anxiously in a small room just down the hall. The two sides were stuck.

All over the country, deep partisan divisions were making it harder for American government to function and its citizens to coexist. The number of intractable disputes seemed to grow by the day: climate change, racial equity, gender-affirming care, guns, immigration, abortion. The battles were paralyzing Congress and pitting red and

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Department Health

December 5, 2023admin

UNC ObGyn, Orange County Department of Health Receive Funding to Reduce Inequities in Maternal Health Care and Outcomes

The joint study between the UNC School of Medicine and the Orange County Health Department has been awarded a $21 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to make pregnancy and birth safer for North Carolinians with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Alison Stuebe, MD, is the UNC-Chapel Hill lead.

A study between the UNC Chapel-Hill and Orange County Health Department, called “Thriving Hearts: Healing-Centered, Integrated, Community Maternity Care,” has been approved for a $21-million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. The funding award will be used to reduce the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and improve maternal outcomes across 10 North Carolina counties over the next six years.

In the United States, rates of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity are rising, especially among Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women and women with disabilities, low incomes, or rural residences. Black women with HDP – a group of high blood pressure disorders that includes preeclampsia and gestational hypertension – are 3.7 times more likely to die from complications and are more likely to experience severe morbidity than their white counterparts.

The project, led by Alison Stuebe, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UNC School of Medicine, and Quintana Stewart, director of Orange County’s Health Department, will be coordinating with local health departments, families, and community groups to make pregnancy and birth safer. Their project strategy involves a multi-level intervention to provide support and connection at the individual patient level, the healthcare team level, and the community level.

“The overarching goal of ‘Thriving Hearts’ is to cultivate conditions for mothers to not only survive pregnancy, but to thrive,” said Stuebe, who is also a Distinguished Scholar

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Department Health

November 21, 2023admin

Morgan County Health Department health inspector retiring

Linda Day is just more than 20 days away from retirement.

At least, according to others at Morgan County Health Department.

Her coworkers set up a sticky note calendar on the door of her office, counting down the days until she officially retires from her role as food program manager and environmental health inspector. In her 27 years in those roles, she inspected county restaurants and taught the food certification course for managers.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to work. Everybody seems to help each other and we’ve grown together.”

Day was hired by the health department after a 20-year career in the food service industry. Since then, she said, the department has grown and changed in several ways, ranging from a new administrator in Dale Bainter to a new, larger building on the former MacMurray College campus. The way she perform her inspections also has changed.

“Our forms … that we used to do an inspection (changed),” she said. “The way that we do an inspection changed. We now look more at high-risk areas in a restaurant or food establishment.”

Despite the changes, area restaurants have kept themselves as clean as they could during Day’s tenure as an inspector, she said. Though some might have had issues with the verdict their establishment received, they were willing to sit down and talk with her about what they could do better, she said.

“That’s always been my goal,” Day said. “My goal has never been, ‘How many violation can I write?’ My goal has always been, ‘How can I help them?'”

Her experiences also helped impress upon her the importance of food safety, whether at a restaurant or when cooking at home.

“Sometimes, when you go in and you see things at a food establishment,”

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Department Health

September 11, 2023admin

Architect for health department relocation biggest among new St. Clair County ARPA requests

The St. Clair County Health Department building, shown on May 23, 2023, is located at 3415 28th St. Officials are weighing using American Rescue Plan dollars to move the agency's operations from the aging facility to the downtown administration building.

Officials have packed agendas for St. Clair County’s board committee sessions on Thursday, including a few new requests for federal COVID stimulus funds.

And the biggest of those requests — drawing from the county’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds — would go toward an architecture firm to relocate the health department.

County administration is recommending the board of commissioners sign off a $557,485 contract with firm NORR to outfit the main administration building, 200 Grand River Ave., in downtown Port Huron once the health agency moves from its 28th Street facility, which Board Chairman Jeff Bohm last month called “by far the worst building the county has” among its aging properties.

“As you can see from the bid tabulation, three of the cost proposals were very close,” Jennifer Posey, administrative services manager, wrote in a memo to the board, citing NORR’s experience with medical facilities and ARPA projects.

“… Upon approval, NORR will work with county staff to prepare drawings, bid documents, and solicit bids for a general contractor for the health department renovation and relocation project.”

In August, county board members agreed to allocate $1 million in ARPA to each of their seven districts with the remaining $9.8 million of the roughly $31 million originally received by the county going toward health department facility needs.

In response to a request for proposals earlier this summer, NORR’s was one of four bids, and though not the cheapest, the highest came in approaching $750,000.

Those bids included the inventory of furnishings, as well as construction and engineering oversight. Under NORR’s bid, the timeline for construction documents was six months. According to Posey’s memo, four firms had attended a walk-through of the existing and new facilities as part of a mandatory step in the bid submission process.

Posey reported that further

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Department Health

August 29, 2023admin

Ottawa County board tells health department to advertise child vaccine waivers

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI — In a meeting filled with impassioned public comments about whether vaccines are safe for children, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday, Aug. 22, that asks the county health department to advertise childhood vaccine waivers.

The resolution, passed in a 9-2 vote, recommends that all Ottawa County health department communications to the public about vaccines for schoolchildren include information about the availability of exemption waivers.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month. Don't forget to add vaccinations to your back-to-school checklist!...

Posted by OC Department of Public Health on Wednesday, August 16, 2023

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Tag: County

Adeline Hambley’s employees at a county health department in Michigan saw her as their protection from political interference by conservative Christians on the county board. Then the board offered her $4 million to quit.