Minutes
North
Carolina Association of Local Health Directors
Full Association Meeting
October
16 , 2003
Wake
County Human Services Building
Raleigh, NC
Call to Order
President
Jim Baluss welcomed the members of the association and guests
to the September 16th meeting at 9:00 am. A quorum was identified;
therefore the meeting proceeded as a full association meeting.
(See attachment for attendance roster)
Fellowship
Jim Baluss
provided the fellowship.
Approval of the Minutes
The minutes
of the August meeting were posted on the web site, ncalhd.org,
and approved as posted.
Treasurer's Report
Secretary
Elaine Russell presented the Treasurer’s report with balances
as of August 27, 2003. Account balances were as follows:
- Checking:
$21,790.36
- Savings:
$36.61
- Money Market:
$366.10
- CD: $40,000.00
President's Report
Jim expressed
his thanks to Mimi for chairing the September meeting. He also
discussed the upcoming appointment to the Ann Wolfe Memorial Board
of Directors. Appointments will also need to be made to the Committee
for Children with Special Health Needs and the Grade Card Education
Committee. Please watch for the information related to the Genomics
Project and how it relates to local public health. In closing
his remarks Jim thanked everyone for their support and participation
in the start of the Public Health 2004 Taskforce. He also congratulated
Bill Smith and George Bond on their election to the NACCHO Board
of Directors.
Special Presentation
Suzanna Young
recognized 5 counties for their recent efforts in refugee health.
The certificates of recognition were issued by the CDC Division
of Global Migration and Quarantine. In a 6-week period 965 Montagnards
were screened through Guildford, Mecklenburg, Wake Forsyth and
Craven Counties. Of those screened 5 acute cases of TB were identified,
11% had parasites, and 0% had malaria.
Executive Director--Deb
Rowe
Deb discussed
the forthcoming work of the Wolfe Endowment, valued at $580,000,
and the appointment of a local health to that Board. The endowment
will provide mini-grants to address child health and infant mortality.
NCPHA will have a committee to review applications to the endowment.
Funded applicants must present a best practices paper from their
funded work. She also discussed the Health Director’s Orientation
that will be occurring after the November meeting. In closing
the final recognition awards from the NCPHA Conference were presented.
Special Presentation--Jonathan
Koch, MD
Dr. Koch
presented his work on “Child Care Health Consultation: The
Quality Enhancement Project for Infants and Toddlers .”
Cleveland County was an initial participant in the project and
Denise Stallings spoke to the impact of the program for daycare
service in her county. The work references “Caring for Our
Children” the gold standard for daycare consultation. (See
attachment).
State Health
Director's Report--Dr. Leah Devlin
Leah announced
that an Oral Health Survey would be conducted in the state for
the first time since 1985. She also reviewed the upcoming work
of the Public Health Taskforce 2004. Correspondence related to
this Taskforce will be streamlined to the fullest extent possible.
Public health has 5 current focus areas: school health, chronic
disease, bioterrorism preparedness, infrastructure, and the elimination
of health disparities. These are to be the accomplishments of
Leah’s leadership and tenure. The role of environmental
health in this legacy was discussed. She also noted the State
Health Director’s Conference will be held January 29-30.
In closing she thanked everyone for the outstanding response to
Hurricane Isabelle.
Local Support--Dennis
Harrington
Dennis noted
the emerging leadership role recognized for Leah at the recent
ASTHO/NACCHO Conference. Although we often struggle with our issues
and challenges we are ahead of many in the nation in our public
health endeavors.
Local
Support/Office of Nursing--Joy Reed
Joy reviewed
two sources of Taskforce data, the facility survey and the survey
approved through Policy and Planning. The matter of tracking square
footage and building availability was discussed. The accreditation
system is set to initiate in January 2004. Six counties are being
sought as pilots, with a mix of health department types. Joy discussed
the expansion of the Health and Wellness Trust Fund’s Senior
Cares Pharmaceutical Assistance Program. At this time, expansion
beyond the 24 grant programs will be limited to Cabarrus and Rowan
counties. The issue of expansion will be readdressed in 2004.
In closing she provided an update on the work of PCG and noted
that salary and benefits information may need to be confirmed.
Special Presentation--Karen
Ponder
Ms. Ponder,
Executive Director of Smart Start reviewed several policy issues
related to program priorities and initiatives. The refining and
narrowing of the scope is due in large part to the reduction of
the Smart Budget from $270M to $200M.
- The role
of child health consultants was reviewed.
- The credential
options of child health consultants were reviewed.
- The role
of local determination in job duties in times of crisis or disaster
was discussed.
- The emerging
trend of independent contractors among Smart Start nurses was
discussed.
- The dynamics
of contract administration were reviewed from the agency, regional,
and state level.
- The importance
of in-kind contributions (20% mandate) was discussed.
- The floor
was opened to general comments.
Ms. Ponder
encouraged local health directors to contact her office at any
time they felt policy issues needed to be clarified or further
discussed.
Committee
Reports (action items)
Policy
and Planning -- Mimi Cooper
Motion:
That we, the NCALHD, request that we have a representative on
the task force that is being formed to rewrite the State Personnel
Act by submitting a letter to Tom Wright under our President’s
signature. The motion was passed unanimously.
Women
and Children's Health -- Wanda Sandele
Motion: That Family Planning performance funds of $875,000 are
distributed in the following manner of $1,875 base allocation
for each county despite performance and the remainder to be
distributed based upon performance. The motion was passed, with
one dissenting vote.
Committee Reports
(information items)
Epidemiology
-- John Morrow
John provided
an overview of the arbovirus cases to-date: 21 West Nile, 17
Lacrosse, and 1 EEE. He also reviewed the CDC study that is
looking at urinary metabolites of NALED mosquito insecticide
that was recently sprayed over areas affected by Hurricane Isabel.
Concerns about the decision process for spraying areas were
discussed. Dr. Cline will continue to work with these concerns.
With regard to bioterrorism he gave an overview of the $26M
Year 04 grant from CDC. With regard to bioterrorism, he also
discussed the “Triple Play” exercises and the role
of HAN for those not directly participating. John also discussed
the CDC Rapid Needs Assessment and it’s role in immediate
post-hurricane response. The State Lab update included a review
of the task force that will be reviewing Pap smear testing.
Also of note was pilot testing of the new test for Chlamydia,
a nucleic acid amplification test. One swab would be used for
GC and Chlamydia. With regard to flu, it appears to be an early
flu season with Texas already reporting. A brief overview of
the multi-state hepatitis A outbreak, which involved Buncombe
County, was provided. In closing, John noted the emerging issue
of clandestine methamphetamine labs and the impact for local
public health. Additional training on the issue will be forthcoming.
(See attachment)
Women and
Children's Health -- Wanda Sandele
Wanda noted
that a 2 _ year RFP will be released for school health programs
with allocations to recipients being $60,000 for the initial
2 years and $30,000 for the final 6 months. Information will
be forthcoming. It will be imperative for the school system
and local public health to collaborate on this initiative. She
also addressed the issue that the state is considering serving
in the role of “purchaser” for flu vaccine next
year to help avoid the “gaming” endured by the local
health departments from the industry this season. In closing
she noted the problems being faced by the immunization registry.
The necessity of an interface between HSIS and proprietary software
must not be overlooked. The related RFP should be released in
mid-December. HIPAA compliance is being achieved with HSIS.
The new server has been installed, tested and successfully run.
The Division is working with NCHICA to begin addressing the
upcoming security standards in HIPAA.
Policy
and Planning -- Don Yousey for Mimi Cooper
Don Yousey
reported that the committee had met the previous day. Don reviewed
the following items that were discussed at the meeting:
Asthma:
Bill Smith had shared a handout regarding an initiative to provide
more school nurses with the hoped for ratio of 1 nurse per 750
students. Bill had cautioned that just adding more nurses was
not enough if they were just going to be relegated to doing
administrative duties (i.e. checking immunizations) versus establishing
standing orders for the nurses to provide medical support to
the students. Boards of Health Rule Making Authority:
Paul Meyer of the County Commissioners’ Association attended
the meeting to discuss Rep. Carolyn Justice’s desire to
revisit the issue of putting some teeth back into the Boards
of Health rule making authority. After discussing all the opposition
last year’s efforts raised, the group agreed that any
such effort should be limited to one issue with very limited
scope. If we are successful getting that, then it might be possible
to add other issues one at a time at later dates. State
Personnel Act Rewrite: Above and beyond the motion
passed earlier in the meeting regarding this issue, Don Yousey
reported that the committee had asked that he draft up the 3
or 4 major issues that he felt were important in this work.
He was to then ask Deb Rowe to share these with members in the
Regional Meetings and then to bring back their ideas on where
they stood on these issues. This information could then be sued
to draw up general consensus from the association on the rewrite
and where we felt it should go. Legislative agenda:
Don reported that Deb Rowe had reviewed the pamphlet we drew
up for the 2003-2004 Legislative Agenda. Deb had suggested that
we keep our work limited to 3 or 4 issues rather than let our
efforts get watered down by trying to take on too much. The
areas of interest she discussed that are still current were:
funds for uncompensated prenatal care, funds for interpreter
services, funds for essential public health services, and seeking
legislation authorizing counties to set fees for environmental
health services. Web-based reporting: Don reported
that Joy Reed had discussed an initiative to put web-based reporting
in place to make county reporting to the state less labor intensive.
She noted that they were working on putting up a firewall so
that only the individual counties could have access to entering
their data. Don voiced concern over others having access to
the raw date before it is processed. While he admitted it was
public information, he felt presenting the data in the correct
fashion was almost as important as the data itself. Public
Health Task Force Measured Outcomes: Lastly, Don reported
that Chris Hoke had reported that the State wants to begin working
on identifying the measured outcomes to use as part of the Task
Force’s work. He stressed that the State wants to include
the health directors in identifying which critical areas should
be tracked
The Alliance
-- Barry Bass
Barry reported
that the Alliance now has 36 members. The Alliance continues
to work with the accountant for a business plan. The next meeting
will be November 20th.
Liaison Reports
UNC-SPH
-- Penny Whiteside
Penny provided
an overview of the NC Center for Genomics and the upcoming training
schedule. In closing he also announced his acceptance of a position
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He thanked the Association
for their support and fellowship through the years.
Adjournment
With no further
business, the motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and approved
unanimously at 1:00 pm.
Respectfully
Submitted,
J. Elaine
Russell, MPH
Secretary-Treasurer |
