HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-12-1993 Board of Health MinutesBOARD OF HEALTH MEETING
AUGUST 12, 1993
The regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Plainview -
Hale County Health District was called to order by Board Chair-
man Lanny Voss at approximately 12:30 P.M., Thursday, August 12,
1993, at the Golden Corral Steakhouse.
Those attending were: Lanny Voss, Dorothy Tilson, Dr. Mary Bub -
John Castro, Dr. Stephen L. Turner, Earl Brown, Donna Wom-
ble, Margaret Kay, Dr. Gary Abercrombie, James Belk, Mayor E.V.
Ridlehuber and City Manager Jim Jeffers. Also present were two
representatives from Plainview Independent School District, Mr.
Vernon Norris, Assistant Superintendent and Rita Robertson., a
school Nurse; serving as secretary, Billie Standefer.
At the chairman's request, the minutes of the last meeting were
reviewed by the Board; with a motion by Dr. Turner and a second
pres-
ented.
_
by Donna Womble, the Board voted approval of the minutes as Chairman Voss explained that he would deviate from the Agenda to
allow Mr. Norris to share his views on the proposed plan to give
distict.
Tuberculin tests (PPD's) to the student body of the entire school
Mr. Norris stated, " We would want to cooperate in the testing of
students for Tuberculosis, but I feel that testing all the stud-
ents would disrupt classes for at least twelve (12) days." He
suggested testing only the first and eight grade students and
perhaps one other grade. He added, "Testing the whole student
body would be a tremendous amount of testing."
Rita Robertson stated that they (the school) had never tested
entire school now.
all grades before, and asked if there was a reason to do the
Dr. Stephen Turner explained that , last year, 10* of the stud-
ents tested at Estacado school had positive reactors. He said it
should have been a maximum of 1-1/2*. He stated, "We have a prob-
lem, and if it is not taken care of, the positive reactors could
reach 25* in the future." He said it was possible to get approx-
imately twenty (20) extra Nurses to help with the testing.
Mr. Norris again stated what a great disruption the testing would
have on the classes at school, and Mrs. Robertson agreed.( Mr.
Norris stated that approximately 1600 students were enrolled in
high school.)
Dr. Turner stated that with twenty (20) Nurses giving the tests,
rse could do four tests per minute.
thatwould be eighty (80) students to each nurse. He said a Nu-
A discussion on the testing followed, and City Manager Jim Jeff-
ers voiced his concern over whether all the students would be in
class to receive the test on any given day.
Dr. Turner stated the reason for doing the test at all was to
prevent an outbreak of Tuberculosis. He explained that incidents
of the disease were wide -spread in the State of Texas and were
rising dramatically. He said,"That's the reason for the Health
Board to stay on top of the situation." He reminded the Board
that the children with the positive reactors were not children
of Migrant Workers, but coaches' and teachers' children. He
finalized his statement by saying if one/any of the children
should get the drug-resistant type Tuberculosis, they might not
live over it.
It was agreed that the cost to give the test to all the students
would be nothing as compared to an outbreak of Tuberculosis.
Mr. Norris said again that they wanted to help in any way possi-
ble, but the "Number One" responsibility of the school district
Is to educate the "kids". He said,"If we do something too dis-
rupting to the education process "too much"of bounds.", we are "jumping out
Mrs. Kay exclaimed, "If the children are not healthy, the school
system can not educate them !"
John Castro suggested that Dr. James K. Morgan, Regional Director
of Region 2, would have statistics for Hale County about percent-
ages of Tuberculosis that might determine a solution to the deci-
sion as to which students should have the test.
Chairman Voss agreed that no Board action would be appropriate
until Dr. Morgan was contacted and his reply was received.(Here,
he invited Mr. Norris and Mrs. Robertson to stay for the rest of
the meeting or explained if they needed to get back to their
jobs, they were free to go; he thanked them for coming.)
The chairman asked Mr. Castro to give a report on the progress of
his research on facilities for the Department.
Mr. Castro stated, "At this time, I would like to propose that we
table the option on purchasing a building." He went on to ex-
plain that the Plains Convalescent building (the one being con-
sidered for purchase) was over -priced; it needed repairs; had
high utility payments and high monthly payments.
He shared that he had sent a proposal to Mr. Jim Raymer showing
the necessary reconstruction plans and outlinig what the Depart-
ment would need for the present Health Department location to
be made workable, since the City Council wanted the Department
to remain "downtown".
He said, also, that he was looking at other buildings in the
downtown area; that interested parties of the "One Stop Shop-
ping" idea had contacted him and wished to meet again to dis-
cuss this concept further.
Following a short discussion of options of facilities, Mr.
Castro told Board members that the 1993-94 Contracts had been
approved and that they were basically the same as last year;
but had allowed an increase of $ 4,800.00 for vaccines. He
explained that the Contracts( with Texas Department of Health
were based on Performance Based Objectives -how well we do or
how we perform is how the budget is determined for next year.
He said Department Nurses would be in Petersburg on August 19,
1993, to give immunizations.
In closing, he stated that the Texas Department of Health had
funds.
"O.K.ed" the Department's spending of $ 18,000.00 of excess '92
Dr. Mary Bublis told Board members that Strep, Gastro Enteritis,
Upper Respiratory Infections, Flu and Pneumonia were currently
the most reported communicable diseases in Hale County. She
said there had also been three cases of Hepatitis A.
Chairman Voss asked Mr. Castro to explain any items on the Ex-
penditue Report of which he felt the Board should be aware.
After a review of the Expenditure Report, a motion by Dorothy
Tilson, a second by Dr. Abercrombie and a vote by the Board,
approved the payment of current expenditues.
There was no other business. Chairman Voss adjourned the meet-
ing
Billie Standefe
Secretary