HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-12-2006 Board of Health MinutesBoard of Heath Minutes
October 12th, 2006
Board Members Present: Neal Burnett, Cinde Ebeling, Sidney Ontai
MD, Belinda Pena, Rita Robertson, RN, and Judy Shannon, RN
Others Present: Benny Cantwell, County Commissioner
Staff Members Present: John Castro, Director of Community
Services, Terry Arnold, Bio Terrorism, Laura Mason, Public Health
Nurse, and Sheila Carter, Secretary.
Dr. Sidney Ontai called the regularly scheduled meeting of the
Plainview -Hale County Board of Health meeting to order at the
Rocking R Steakhouse on October 12th, 2006 at 12:30 p.m.
First Item on Agenda: Invocation, was not given.
Second Item on Agenda: Approval of .Tunel5th, 2006 minutes. Dr.
Ontai asked if there were any additions or corrections to the
minutes. Cinde Ebeling pointed out that her name had been
misspelled on page 8 of the minutes. It should have been spelled
Cinde not Cine. The minutes were unanimously approved
Third Item on Agenda: Review of Expenditures. The expenditures
for May, June, July, and August 2006 were reviewed. Dr. Ontai
asked if there were any expenditures that the Board should be
aware of. John Castro informed the Board that everything was
normal. Mr. Castro stated that we are coming up to the end of the
year and it looks like we are going to come out under budget. I
should classify that in budget 52 we normally had $30,000.00 for
chemical and medical we allocated $20,000.00. We actually spent
$32,000.00 that is because the way the Flu Vaccine was ordered
last year. What we were thinking had been done, had not been done.
We received 2 shipments of Vaccine when we should have just
gotten one. Once you order it and accept it you are stuck with the
bill. We explained this to the City Manager and what they did was to
transfer funds to cover the over expenditures. So while it shows
Department 53 and 56 came in under budget 52 really came in over
budget. This next year we have already started the new funding
year, so whatever we are going to buy we should be in the process
of buying. So as far as expenditures go they are really ordinary
expenditures. The last time I told you all about some of the things
going on in the Health Department, fixing things up we had Mr.
Raymer fix our leak in one of our air conditioning units he very
graciously accepted the bill. Expenditures are normal.
Fourth Item on Agenda: Update and discuss communicable disease
reports. Laura Mason, LVN reported that there were no
communicable diseases to report, except for the rise in Gonorrhea,
and the presence of Chlamydia. SID'S are still a big problem. Dr.
Ontai asks if we were identifying cases and trying to get them
medicated. October has been a very booming month. Dr. Ontai asks
if we had gotten the flu shots yet. We will start giving them on
Monday Oct 16th. We got 200 doses of the initial 2000. Dr. Ontai
said it looks like the CDC has loosened up the recommendations this
year. They have been pretty adamant about waiting till November to
give them out.
Fifth Item on Agenda: Health Department news: John Castro said
beside from the flu shots, the comment Dr. Ontai made about the
CDC loosing up there requirements is one of the reasons we are
going to give them on a first come first serve basis. Region 1 which
is Texas Department of State Health Service has indicated that they
do not expect a shortage of the flu vaccine this year. There are
several departments within the state that is having trouble receiving
their vaccine, but it is all based on the suppliers. We don't know if
they're trying to drive the price up or not. We should receive the
next shipment within the next 2 weeks according to what Kelli said.
We will have plenty of vaccine and it will be given on a first come
first basis. No one will be turned away.
Laura Mason said our children's flu vaccine would not come in until
November. Texas vaccine program is not going to ship it until then.
Dr. Ontai commented that this has been his experience to. He has
not had any problems getting the vaccine for the adults but the State
is dragging there heals with the children flu vaccine.
Other Health Department news the City Council approved and
signed the renewal of the Bio Terrorism Grant, which is for 6
months. They will probably have to come back and approve it again
for the remainder of the year. They also approved what we call the
Local Public Health Grant. This is what funds the Administration of
the local Health Department. Both of those grants are basically the
same funds we received last year.
One of the things I will tell you, the last time we were considering
possibly contracting directly with the State on the Bio Terrorism
Grant. After talking with Region 1, one of the things we found out is
there is something out there called Center for Disease Control
Reporting System that should be in our Hospital's and Clinic's. The
Bio Terrorism grant pays for this system in Hale County, which cost
about $4800.00 a year. We don't know how long the Bio Terrorism
Grant is going to be out there. We do know it may be around for 4
or 5 years this is not long term. If we accepted the Grant and
contracted directly with the State the $4800.00 would be coming out
of that Grant. As soon as that grant for whatever reason Homeland
Security decided they were not going to fund Bio Terrorism or any
of that planning process the City would still be stuck with the
$4800.00 that is the reason we decided to not contract with the
State. Instead we will subcontract thru Region One. The State will
still have to pay the $4800.00 regardless of what happens to the
Grant. There are 2 things that are happening as far as the Health
Department is concerned, other than that it is routine.
Sixth Item on Agenda: Discuss Childhood Obesity. Dr. Ontai said
we have uncovered Childhood Obesity as one of those public health
issues that the Health Board should focus on and those we are going
to solicit suggestions from Board members about what we should
focus on and if we are going to do any initiative.
John Castro said one of the things the Board decided was to look
and see what kind of educational programs is out there, and see if
the Department of State Health Services could provide us a package
that would go into the Schools.
Dr. Ontai said, the last issue of Health Affairs was devoted to State
of Public Health and they have a bunch of articles on it if anyone is
interested in this he can get us copies. One of the things there is
areas in Public Health that these guys at least looked at that they
thank could use improvement and one of the difficult thing is in
terms of reporting STD epidemics and stuff like that. We do a good
job of things locally in terms of reporting STD and thing like that. In
terms of bigger things like Terrorism and Hurricanes that hit, it gets
real problematic. It turns out that 25% of all people in America live
in a metropolitan area that spans State boarders, so if we are talking
about something like that we are really hosed because you have
totally different jurisdictions. The key thing is how do we get all the
different players to talk to each other and act like a unified group to
address problems that need to be dealt with across Groups,
Fictional Lines, Hospitals, Doctors, Public Health Departments,
Health Workers, how do we all get together? Childhood obesity is
one problem that we all have to do that.
One of the little projects that we are doing that shows the pathway
that one has to take is the county medical society has joined with
AHEC to do a Science Fair at the Schools. One of the ways to
improve this is to get kids who grew up here interested and get
them involved with help groups. That is how you grow your supply
doing Science Fairs and getting kids interested in this is something
we need to join forces on. (An example of this,) is to get the
Schools to join forces with the Science Teachers and Doctors so we
can keep the lines of communications open, and keep on channeling
information across with specific projects. I think that may work with
other issues that arise and that way we would know who to talk too.
With childhood obesity I am sure I could speak with the County
Medical Society that we would be interested in getting involved with
that. Does anyone have any ideas in ways we could help?
John Castro said we see this problem on Radio and Television but
we hardly see articles on childhood obesity in the Plainview papers.
Once in a while you will see small articles in the Lubbock
newspapers buried back in the medical news, but it is not really
something out there to the Community other than to Schools and to
the Medical Community. A good thing would be getting information
in the Daily Herald and other newspapers locally about Childhood
Obesity. Dr Ontai asked if we would all want to generate contents to
articles. John said we could go out and find articles that the State
puts out about childhood obesity and take those to the papers and
see if Niki Logan would publish them and let the paper know that
the Health Department has decided to start this campaign to address
Childhood Obesity and we would like for you to help us with this.
Neil Burnett said that Childhood Obesity comes more from the
parent than it does from the Child. Neil said that would be an area
that a person would need to work on first because a lot of times we
see children doing what they learn from there parents.
Dr. Ontai asked John if he has seen these articles come across so
when he does, he can take them to the newspaper. John said our
best resource for information like this is to contact the State
Department of Health Services in Lubbock. We would need to
contact Barry Wilson who is the administrator for Dr. Pendergrass
and let him know that this is an issue our Health Board has decided
to address in the coming quarter and year. We need all the articles
and press releases that we can get on this.
Cinde Ebeling said another good source on this is Eat Rite.org.
Cinde told us about Nancy Cox doing a thing on physical active and
a thing on fats and sugars. The kids liked it so well that they
requested to do it again. Nancy would be a good source to go to for
help with this because she knows what worked and what didn't.
Rita Robertson said that the kids could not have or buy anything
with sugar in it from the cafeteria or from the vending machines.
Parents can't even bring stuff with sugar in it. There were Mothers
and Grandmothers that approached the State because they weren't
allowed to do birthdays, so now they can do a birthday party. Rita
said that their PE classes have the Catch program that teaches kids
to be more active and teaching them about health and that kind of
stuff. They are tracking the weight and height of the 3rd and 4th
grade student's to see how the program is working and if it is
improving things or not. In the cafeteria they fry very little
anymore and they use low fat cheese. What the kids bring from
home to eat the schools doesn't have any control over. Rita said
about 90% of the kids are on free or reduced lunches.
Cinde said the Health Fair at Hillcrest is somehow connected to the
PTA.
John Castro asked what if someone went to the City PTA which
covers all the Schools and ask why not put a program at each
School like this sometime thru the year because this is where we
are going to have the parent's and target it toward the parents
saying this is what you should be giving your children and this is
what you should be encouraging them to eat. Cinde said if we are
going to do something like this it needs to be at the first of the year
as parents come to the first few meetings then a lot of them never
come back. They only have 2 meeting a year at the High School
and Jr. High, and that makes a lot of dfference.
Dr. Ontai ask if we could invite Nancy Cox to the next meeting and
have her to help us brainstorm about how to do that.
Benny Cantwell said the Extension Service has a lot of materials on
nutrition. We could check with them and see what materials they
can put together. It sure wouldn't hurt to get with them and see
what they have, and they may participate and help with this. The
contact person at the Extension Service would be Deana Sageser
and Andy Hart would be the 4-H person. Dr. Ontai said before we
go to the city wide PTA and ask for a first of the year meeting we
ought to know what is out there for us to do and these guys may
have programs that they do. Dr. Ontai said if we wanted to interface
with the County Medical Clinic he is sure he could help with this, as
he is an officer until December. The primary health Doctors is very
interested in this. Cinde said another good source is the School
counselors.
John said if we set an objective to get some sort of preventive
education into the school system on childhood obesity, we will
probably have to put our focus on elementary schools since that is
where we want to start. By the time they get to high school it may
be to late. What I want to do is set a plan to do that. We can have
Nancy Cox and Deana Sageser to come and talk to us. Instead of
having both of them at the same time one meeting we have Nancy
and the other we have Deana then the next meeting we get some
information from DSHS and that gives us 3 meetings to do our
planning and where we are going to go and how we are going to do
it. In the meantime we could even have someone from the PTA
come and set thru those meetings and get information that we are
hearing and talk to the folks that is in charge of the City PTA, and
let them know that this is what the health board is doing and trying
to get out. We need to set a goal by the time school starts next
year or by July we should have our plan in place as to what we are
going to present to the city PTA to go out to the Schools for the 1st
PTA meeting. Cinde said the PTA should plan and meet in July for
the upcoming school year. Neil said it might be good when we put
into that schedule that someone goes to the school board, as the
school board is the one that sets the policies and let the school
board know what we are trying to do.
John said realizing the board meets very 2 months if we have a plan
we could meet on a month to month basis so we could have
everything in place by May so we can present it to someone in June
so they could take it to the City PTA in July.
Dr. Ontai said the last couple of years he has noticed that most fast
food places is really trying to have something that is half way
decent. If we could somehow incorporate the healthy aspect of
there menus and highlight them and maybe even get the vendors to
give us coupons for stuff like free salads or things like that. Cinde
said if we could get something on everyone of our restaurants in
town so we don't discriminate against anybody and find their
healthiest item on the menu and publish it. Dr. Ontai asked if this
was something that the Health Department could see itself doing, is
Highlighting healthy aspects of peoples menus. John said that this is
something that we might have Jack McCasland the Health Inspector
to do when he is around a restaurant he could informally see if the
vendor would be interested in this. It would be free publicity for
them and it could be a positive thing for them if they are interested.
John said he would talk to Jack on this and get him up to speed on
this. Most places are inspected twice a year and this would not take
any more personnel to do this. John said he would bring some kind
of guide lines and plans to the next regular meeting in December on
how we are going to implement this objective. I will also invite
Nancy Cox to come and talk to us so we can get started on this and
I will set the meeting so we will have enough time to listen to
everybody and be able as a group to come together with our
recommendation to the PTA in June for there meeting in July.
Seventh Item on Agenda: Discuss other health concerns the Board
would like to address: The mock exercise for the POD is October
23, 24, and 25th. This mock exercise is mandated by the state.
Every City, County, and every State in this nation has to have a
emergency management plan of what they will do in an event of a
major National disaster or A Bio Terrorism attack. Public health is
one that is going to have to respond to that. They want to see how
Hale County is going to react in the event of some Biological agent
being released maybe not necessarily here.
We will do a mock disaster with people going thru a mock trial of
releasing M&M' S or something else to show that they went thru
the line. On the surface it sounds real simple but if you look at it, it
involves the City of Plainview administration, the County
administration, from the County Judge on down because if you get a
biological agent in the atmosphere and you have to order what is
called the strategic national stockpile which is tractor trailer and
van type medicine and equipment that comes to a location it would
come into Lubbock and then it would be transported here and from
here to the dispensing sites or the regional staging and storage
facility. Then they are sent out to the Point of Distribution or POD.
Anytime there is A medication and equipment travel it has to be
guarded so you now have the police involved not just the local
police, but also the Department of Public safety. Then you have the
County involved.
We have to dispense so many inoculations in a certain amount of
time. From the time you order to the time you get this huge
stockpile of medication is 12 hours so if we have to make sure we
have the least amount of casualties we have to get to them within
24 hours, so we have already lost 12 hours getting the supplies
here. We have to make sure we get the first responders, which is
the police and firemen and their families taken care of first. There
are several steps involved in this procedure. We are going to set up
a POD at Trinity Church in Plainview and we need volunteers. In
case of a real disaster Dr. Peeler would be making all of our medical
decisions.
They have come up with a dispensing site in each community and
we have 2 or 3 here in Plainview. It will usually be the schools.
Judy Shannon asks the question if a person lived between Hale
center and Plainview would they go to Hale Center or would they go
to Plainview. John said that was a good question, as he did not know
if they had put that in their plans. John said he guessed that would
come back to that rural area or that city for example, Petersburg
said that they set up there plan and they knew they were going to
have a dispensing site and the Health Department was going to
bring the stuff here how much of A area do we cover. How will we
know where to go?
Eight Item on Agenda: Adjourn. Dr. Ontai adjourned the October
meeting of the Board of Health after inquiring if there was any
further business to discuss. John will let us know when and where
the next meeting will be.
-��
Secretary
Plainview -Hale County Health Department