Wednesday, October 25, 2000
|
Wednesday, October 25, 2000 |
|
County health department provides wide range of services affecting all residents By MONROE
ROARK
In any jurisdiction, the health department could be described as one of many government agencies largely overlooked by citizens until they have an urgent, direct need for it. But the Fayette County Health Department, like many other areas of the growing county government, is working in areas that many people probably do not realize, and with a volume of cases that would certainly surprise many local residents. It is easy to see that every resident of Fayette County, and every person who comes here from outside the county each day to work, benefits from these services. Overseen by the county's Board of Health, a body consisting of people appointed by the Board of Commissioners, the Health Department also answers to District 4 Public Health, which comprises 12 counties on the south side of Atlanta. The two major divisions of the county department are Physical Health and Environmental Health. County nurse manager Cynthia Grant leads a staff of eight administrative persons, five full-time nurses and one part-time nurse in the Physical Health section. Richard Fehr is in charge of Environmental Health, which consists of a staff of eight. Immunizations are the first thing people usually think about when they think of the Health Department, but the work done there involves much more than that. All nurses are expanded-role nurses, meaning they can dispense medicine by protocol, or without a doctor's prescription. They do pap smears and family planning exams, give out birth control pills, and check people for sexually transmitted diseases. Blood work for marriage licenses and STDs is a regular part of their average day. Grant estimated that about 70 percent of her office's patients initially come for financial reasons, although many keep coming back because of the relationships they develop with the people who treat them. Many adults who were immunized by Health Department personnel as school children are still coming back, she said. The Fayette County office can handle virtually any travel immunization you might need, including protection against malaria and yellow fever. In addition to the many Fayette County residents in the travel industry who regularly need this service, a large number of people come in for shots before leaving the country for mission work, Grant said. Health Department officials dispense WIC (Women, Infants and Children) vouchers for food, but they also give nutrition counseling so that voucher recipients and others can learn how best to use the food they have. Infectious disease monitoring, for such cases as tuberculosis, are handled by the Health Department. In fact, while actual house calls are far fewer now than they were years ago, infectious disease monitoring involves regular trips to the patient's home so that he or she can remain isolated. A refugee health program is also available to be put into place whenever the state gives notice that new refugees are in the county, Grant said. As with many other county departments, her office is becoming more multi-lingual to deal with the growing immigrant population, having dealt with Vietnamese and Pakistani patients in recent years, to name just two examples. While direct involvement in local schools is not as great as in years past, the Health Department still gives Hepatitis B immunizations to all sixth-graders and does scoliosis screenings. Health fairs and appearances at area churches are also part of the regular schedule. On the environmental health side, one of the primary tasks is the inspection of the more than 200 restaurants in the county, a figure that Fehr says changes almost on a weekly basis, with eating establishments opening and closing continually. The state requires inspections at least twice a year, Fehr says, but his department tries to visit each location at least 3-4 times, and depending on customer complaints the number could be higher. "There's a pretty consistent increase in the number of restaurants," said Fehr. "That's because of an increase in people that not only live in the community but visit here or work here." Health Department officials also inspect tourist accommodations motels and hotels, of which there are currently eight in the county. Recent adoption of new swimming pool regulations by the county Board of Health means a big change in the department's responsibilities. Whereas the county formerly inspected public pools at tourist accommodations and wherever complaints were lodged, inspections will now be conducted on a regular basis at all public pools, including apartment complexes and subdivisions. The Health Department provides bacteriological testing for private wells when it is requested. The state does not mandate that every well owner have such testing, but if it is desired the county must be available to provide it, Fehr said. Aside from restaurant inspections, the biggest day-to-day responsibility of the Environmental Health office is on-site sewage inspection for every new residential and commercial construction project that has running water and is not on a sewer line. Also, when a lending institution make a particular request, the county will give an up-to-date inspection or on-site sewage system or private well. One of many local organizations participating in the National Safe Kids Coalition, the department takes very seriously its involvement in injury control, having been recognized statewide with a Best Coalition award in 1998. A fact that may surprise many taxpayers is that the Health Department mostly supports itself financially. Most of its $1 million annual budget comes from the various fees paid by patients for immunizations and other services, plus fees paid by restaurants and other businesses. Some funds are received from the state and the county.
|
||