DRAFT

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

MINUTES

February 1, 2010

The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, February 1, 2010 @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Jeff Metzger, Sr. called the meeting to order.  Members present were Eileen Dubin, John Emerson and Paul Stoddard.  Ms. LaVigne was absent.  Ms. Donna Moulton, Ms. Karen Grush, Dr. Shirley Richmond and Ms. Lesly Wicks were also present. A quorum was present.

Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to allow Ms. LaVigne and Mr. Tyson to call into the meeting via conference call so that they could participate in the meeting.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Mr. Emerson, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from January 2010.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

          Ms. Dubin asked if she could speak to the committee about grant writing  Mr. Emerson asked if the committee could discuss meeting times  Chairman Metzger placed both of the requests on the agenda as 7A.) Grant writing and 7B.) Meeting time.

Moved by Ms. Dubin, seconded by Mr. Emerson and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

Mr. Derek Tyson as arrived at 6:45p.m.

ONE-TIME SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY REQUESTS

          The committee briefly discussed the 2^ND batch of various applications that they have received regarding the one-time Senior Services Tax Levy requests.  The committee agreed on the following allocation:

          1.       Voluntary Action Center                             $5,000.00

                   *This request is for the replacement of an oven for Meals On Wheels preparation.

          It was moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to forward this recommendation on to the full board for approval.

EMERGENCY SERVICES UPDATE – MS. KAREN GRUSH, PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTOR

Mrs. Grush presented an update on the Health Department’s H1N1 activities.  

She reported many variables came together to challenge our planning contributing to a difficult H1N1 Flu planning and response. Vaccine production delay, widespread illness, and media saturation leading to public panic and fear resulted in a high demand for vaccine with very low supply. Now there is little demand for vaccine and a high supply.

She stated the Health Department had a solid plan to initially focus vaccination efforts on children in county school districts. However, the plan was based on the assumptions we would have ample supplies of vaccine, and other health care providers would have their vaccine shortly thereafter to reach medically high-risk individuals and adults in the CDC target group.  Neither of those two key factors occurred. Consequently, the plan had to be revised many times in accordance with vaccine supply considerations.

The Health Department received an initial 5000 doses of vaccine on October 15^th and a second shipment of 4000 doses on November 4^th. Additional vaccine has been received since then.  Clinics began October 22, 2009 first vaccinating employees, emergency medical services personnel and first responders. Because ample supplies of vaccine never came in to implement our school plan in each district throughout the county, the decision was made to hold a clinic at the Health Department, a clinic in the north at the Genoa Kingston High School, and a clinic in the south at the Sandwich High School for any individual in the CDC target group. Community clinics required extensive logistics and were very costly as attendance was unpredictable resulting in a large amount of staffing needed.  In December when CDC announced anyone could receive the vaccine, the Health Department went to an appointment basis for the vaccine holding weekly clinics and again returning to the southern and northern part of the county.  The appointment strategy has reduced clinic cost because staffing can be scheduled based on the number of appointments made.  To date approximately 8,500 doses of vaccine have been administered by the Health Department.

Because local health care providers never received any of their pre-ordered vaccine, the Health Department shared some of its shipment to Kishwaukee Hospital and private providers for their highest risk patients. Approximately 3200 doses were transferred. 

School and community surveillance were conducted to recognize illness above the norm in the community.  Through December 2009, 28 cases of H1N1 have been reported and investigated.

DeKalb County has had one death, the teenager from Sandwich.  Age range of cases was from 1 year through 53 years.

The Illinois Department of Public Health provided antivirals, masks and gloves to local health departments.  Antivirals received by the Health Department were offered to local healthcare providers for uninsured and underinsured patients that had difficulty affording them. 800 courses of treatment have been provided to local health care providers.  As part of our prevention efforts, school districts and day cares were provided a supply of surgical masks for their ill students.

Much was done in the arena of Public Information.  Trittenhaus Design was contracted with to develop the content and organization of the Health Department H1N1 Website, which would become our primary source for keeping the public informed.  Twelve thousand copies of CDC H1N1 public information brochure were distributed and printed throughout the county. There was intense media interest throughout the fall, especially in light of the teen death in October. 

All health departments in the State received funding under the Public Health Emergency Response Act to implement required services related to the pandemic influenza.  Two grants have been received.  A planning grant in the amount of $122,297 was received. An implementation grant in the amount of $194,231 was also received.  Mrs. Grush indicated all of the planning grant will be expended however, she does not anticipate that the implementation grant will all be expended as the Influenza Vaccine distribution never materialized as expected due to vaccine shortage. However, if a third wave surfaces and vaccine demand increases, the funding will be expended. 

Mrs. Grush reported that at this time there is sporadic H1N1 influenza nationwide.  There is limited seasonal influenza activity. This is the time of the year when seasonal influenza is beginning to peak.  Nationwide, approximately 20% of the population has been vaccinated against H1N1.  It is believed another 20% of the population is protected as the result of having H1N1 influenza.   Mrs. Grush reported that the H1N1 viral strain is to be included in next falls vaccine. Mrs. Grush stated that when all vaccines administered are reported by all providers, she believes 20 to 25% of the county population will have been vaccinated. 

Mrs. Grush reported the best way to protect one from H1N1 is to get the vaccine.  The public health challenge is to continue to improve vaccination coverage, even when the public perceives decreased need.  Mrs. Grush reported that although influenza activity has declined, cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza, including severe disease, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to occur.   

TRI-COUNTY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER UPDATED – DR. SHIRLEY RICHMOND

          Dr. Shirley Richmond, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services, and who also runs the Tri-County Community Health Center and the new Community Cares Clinic updated the committee on what they have been doing. 

          She said that at the Tri-County Community Health Center by Kishwaukee College they are seeing a good volume of patients from Rochelle.  They have a full-time nurse practitioner working there now and would like to have another one on staff.  To some people in the county this is a regular healthcare facility for our area. 

          They saw a drop in utilitization at Tri-County when the new Community Cares Clinic opened up in the old Monsanto building.  It was opened in August of 2009 to help with the Kishwaukee Hospital Emergency Room.  They take private pay; Medicaid, Medicare, self-paid on sliding scale to name a few. They employ two medical assistants there who are part-time nurses and a bilingual person

HOPE HAVEN UPDATE – MS. LESLY WICKS

          Ms. Lesly Wicks, Director of Hope Haven in DeKalb, said that they are in survivor mode now.  They have lost a huge family foundation grant worth $40,000.  They have always been fiscally conservative so they have been able to meet their bills so far.  They have made a recent decision to expand their facilities.  The composition of families has changed, she said.  She explained that they have 13 families and 8 of those are 2 parent families.  They have more on their waiting list. They have more homeless than they can house.  She also said that they are seeing single men living in cars and parks.  They had 34 men in the shelter during bad weather this year.  They are also seeing more single Dads with kids and unemployed.  She is hoping that the funding will come from more grants or donations form the community. 

GRANTWRITING – MS. EILEEN DUBIN      

          Ms. Dubin said that she has spoken with Ms. Jenny Tompkins to work with the County on grant writing items.  She has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee and the Economic Development Committee to work with.  She will be looking at stimulus funds right now.

MEETING TIME

          Chairman Metzger, Sr., said that he had spoken with Mr. Derek Tyson about starting the meetings back to their original time of 6:30p.m. since the new ordinance was adopted by the County Board relative to the amendment to their rules to include audio/visual participation for county board members at the standing committees. Therefore, Mr. Tyson can now call into the meetings via conference phone so that he can participate in the meetings because of his work schedule.

          Mr. Tyson said that he just heard word from work that he can make the meeting time of 6:30p.m. again so the meeting will stay at the 6:30p.m. start time.

ADJOURNMENT

          Moved by Mr. Emerson, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                Respectively submitted,

                                                _________________________________  

                                                Chairman Jeffery Metzger, Sr.

_____________________________ 

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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