Meeting Minutes for
April 5, 2017
The following board members were present: Dr. David Brubaker
MD, Timothy LaFever, Dr. Zahi Kassas MD., Dr. Leo Cusumano MD and Kevin
LaForge, Legislative Representative.
Others present: Lori Ballengee, Tyler Shaw, Michele Visseau,
Laurie Hennessy.
Members absent: Dr. Willard Simons DDS
Medical Advisor Absent: Dr. Christopher Depner.
The meeting was called to order by Lori Ballengee at 7:07
p.m.
A motion was made by Kevin LaForge to approve the minutes
from the December 21, 2016 meeting.
This motion was seconded by Timothy LaFever. Motion Carried
Lori B. - Personnel changes – outreach specialist at Cancer
Services is fulltime. Rich Reynolds retired in February 2017 from the
Physically Handicapped Children Program (PHCP). Michelle Haggstrom has also
left the Emergency Preparedness position. There is no longer a need for the
Emergency Preparedness and PHCP to be fulltime. We are looking to restructure
positions in the Health Department as follows: Hiring one fulltime employee for
Emergency Preparedness 3 days and Public Health Technician for 2 days a week.
Also hire a fulltime employee as PHCP Coordinator for 3 days a week and
Corporate Compliance 2 days per week. Josh Schultz will become Children
Services Coordinator and oversee both Early Intervention and PHCP.
2016 Budget – The Health Department ended 2016 $140,000 to
the good. New York State Department of Health no longer allows us to pay IT the
$15,000 per year for services.
Health Department will be moving to the 3rd floor, hopefully
by late fall or early winter of 2017.
Corporate Compliance – no billing issues, no patient
complaints regarding billing or compliance. Billing audits are going well. Any
minor issues have been being fixed.
Laurie H. - Policies and procedure changes were discussed for
Communicable Disease, Immunization, LHCSA, Lead, and TB. A motion was made by
Dr. Cusumano to accept the Policy and Procedures. This motion was seconded by
Dr. Kassas. Motion Carried
Sliding fee scales for Lead & Immunization. A motion was
made by Dr. Kassas to accept the sliding fee schedules. This motion was
seconded by Dr. Brubaker. Motion Carried
Family Planning Chart review – No problems found.
Comprehensive audit is September – IPRO Audit is also
coming. Health Educator is getting into more and more schools.
Allegany County Lead testing is down.
Immunization clinic review revealed only minor issues such
as missed signatures/mother’s maiden name. Billing chart review was concerning,
however, when they looked into it, the issue was dates were wrong which was an easy fix. Quality Control Logs have been
improving. No patient complaints. There were two minor employee incidents.
Family Planning – County doors lock at 5:00 p.m. during
winter and during summer at 4:00 p.m. Alfred clinic hours have changed due to
locking of doors at 5:00p.m. this created an issue with our late clinics there.
New policy for patient that misses 3 appointments in a row (without notice of
at least 30 minutes) will not be able to make a new appointment for a month.
Family Planning will try this new policy and report back to the Board at the
next meeting in June.
The Nurse Practitioner would like to become certified to
preform DOT Physicals as there is a need for this in our County. A motion was
made by Dr. Kassas to set the fee for DOT Physicals at $100.00. This motion was
seconded by Dr. Cusumano. Motion Carried
Michele gave the report on shredding of files 82 boxes were
shredded by Shred It in January, 2017 and109 boxes were shredded by Shred It in August, 2016.
Lori B. announced that Susan Dougherty has resigned from the
Board of Health. The board had discussion on who might be interested in the
position.
Tyler announced there is Free Rabies clinic on 4/8/17 at the
County Building in Belmont. We are testing going 100% electronic.
Lead monitoring in school drinking water is 100% in
compliance. Currently 2 schools are doing any repairs needed to fix the lead in
the drinking water.
Environmental staff has elected not to change working hours
for the summer as have done in the past.
New Business:
Kevin LaForge asked the board members what their position
was on the drug situation currently happening in Allegany County. Drug use is
continuing to get worse. Some suggestions from the board members to help with
the situation were to have doctors prescribe less pain killers and more
education to pregnant moms (WIC).
Kevin also discussed the State Legislature was discussing
changing the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21 years old. A motion was made
by Kevin LaForge to support Legislation to change the legal age from 18 years
old to 21 years old for the purchase of tobacco products. The motion was
seconded by Dr. Kassas. Motion Carried
Board of Health meetings will now be held on the second
Tuesday of every quarter instead of Wednesday.
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting by Timothy LaFever.
This motion was seconded by Dr. Kassas. The meeting was adjourned at 8:49pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Michele Visseau
Confidential Secretary to the Public Health Director
