Peoria Standard

Woodford County Health Department Board of Health met April 30.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

The meeting was called to order by Bonnie Allen, President of the Board of Health.

ROLL CALL

REVIEW OF MINUTES

FINANCIAL REPORT

Financial report discussed. As of 2/29/2020, $182,083.06 of the $821,061 budget has been expended (22% of total budget). Rent figured into these expenditures at a total of $40,000 and submitted in February’s bills. Some unexpected expenses related to COVID-19 have come about, such as virtual capabilities to allow employees to work from home.

ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES

Motion to accept expenses by Jim Johnson with a second by Dr. Cole. All in favor. Motion carried.

Motion to accept administrator report by Emily Barker, with a second by Dr. Cole. All in favor. Motion carried.

Aggertt discussed administrative report. All staff have been working on COVID-19 related response.

Clinical report - DON is due to begin maternity leave any day. PRN nurse is willing to work additional hours to assist full-time nurse with COVID response. WCHD has worked with DHS and Tazewell County Health Department to continue to offer Curbside WIC services to our clients. Clients will come to WCHD to pick up WIC coupons at certain times when 2 WCHD staff members are in the building. Looking into paying Tazewell County for the time they have put into assisting WCHD clients. “Thank You” to Tazewell County for being willing to assist.

Septic, Water and Food Plan review was held before COVID outbreak. IDPH had good things to say about our department. Thank you to WCHD EH staff for their detailed work.

SPAN Grant on hold for the time-being. Andrea is still working on the Tobacco grant as much as she can from home since she cannot go out into the community. Census Grant is still ongoing. Please complete census if you have not already. Maurice Elbert funds (Community Foundation Grant) is on hold, Mental Health 1st Aid class was postponed. Workgroups for PFS are still being participated in, Aggertt is not on the board but is still helping with the website. IAPHA report – March meeting cancelled due to COVID response. Sent a letter to Governor on behalf of IAPHA requesting to allocate funds to local health departments when they receive FEMA funding.

WCHD plans for outbreak scenarios but has focused on dispensing medications and not disease investigations and contact tracing. Aggertt commends her staff for adapting and assisting in areas outside of their scope and for the amount of time put into this response to continue to move forward and help the residents of Woodford County.

NEW BUSINESS

Public Health Award nomination was discussed. Nancy Aldridge was nominated. Nancy has helped our Child Passenger Safety program by providing car seats through the Eureka Area Kiwanis. Nancy also volunteers as an MRC member and advocates for many of our programs.

Motion to accept Nancy Aldridge to receive Public Health Award made by Jim Johnson. Second by Dr. Cole. All voted in favor. Motion carried.

Aggertt discussed epidemiologist position. She did get one AmeriCorps member’s application for the position. Application was turned down due to limited experience of the applicant. WCHD does not have staff time to train the applicant to the level necessary. Aggertt would like to draft a job description to hire an epidemiologist but would like to table discussion for right now. Topic will be tabled until May meeting.

Changes to WIC Policy 101 reviewed. Changes were prompted at the suggestion of WIC review. Addition needed to be made to the policy. The action was already being performed by WIC staff, but it needed to be added to policy.

Motion to approve addition to Policy 101 made by Dr. Cole. Seconded by Jim Johnson. All in favor. Motion carried.

WIC Policy 108 was created to outline the process to distribute new breast pumps to WIC clients or other qualified residents. Pumps are provided by 3rd party vendor. Client’s insurance is billed for the pump.

Motion to approve addition to Policy 108 made by Dr. Cole. Seconded by Emily Barker. All in favor. Motion carried.

MCH reports and Jenna’s reports will be emailed out later, as they do not need to be voted on.

Aggertt updated board on COVID-19 response. 1st call was received late on March 13 from Peoria City/County Health Department (PCCHD). PCCHD had approved for patient to be tested and realized that patient was Woodford County resident. Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties have been working together through this to share information as a tri-county. PCCHD had their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) up and running two weeks prior to the first case. Peoria County Board, Peoria City, EMA and other community partners involved very early on. This will continue as long as needed. Aggertt activated internal EOC early on Saturday morning, with nurses, Andrea, and Dustin involved initially. Disease investigation process began and continues, as well as authorization for testing. IDPH criteria was followed. Confirmed cases were quarantined and contacts were isolated. Tri- County press conference on 3/14 gave information about 1st case. IDPH press release had incorrect information regarding demographics of patient. This was corrected with the state. Following days worked on the structure of the response. Discussions were held with Woodford County EMA regarding response during a pandemic and who is responsible for what. Aggertt worked with legal before releasing any information. Information from IDPH was changing by the hour was sometimes difficult to stay current. Multiple people are now receiving SIREN emails to make sure our information was the most current. The next week focused on contacts and how to instruct contacts to isolate. Health Departments would have to provide approval for testing early on. A matrix was available to decide who could be tested. There were some gray areas on whether someone could be tested. WCHD would check with the State for clarification on these areas before approving testing. Test results are not immediate, sometimes taking up to 72 hours. Current matrix is looking at congregate settings and ICU patients. Physicians can now use a web portal to request testing from the State rather than call the local health department each time. Physicians can still use a private lab for testing if the State does not approve the test. Thankfully, more commercial testing is available now. However, it is difficult to know how many pending tests that we have since we are not approving each one. Therefore, we are only reporting positive cases, because we don’t know how many are pending in private labs. The private labs will share positive cases (required) but may not be reporting negative or pending tests. Person Under Investigation (PUI) is someone who has had close contact with a positive case or someone that has been tested. This was very difficult to track. WCHD monitors PUIs and positive cases. One hurdle was the reporting systems – REDCAPP and INEDSS. This process has been made easier by the state.

Nurses will be focusing on contacting confirmed positives. Additional staff (or volunteers, if needed) will assist with intake process if needed. Aggertt is focusing on make sure that we receive and utilize the latest guidance.

As of now, Woodford County has 5 positive cases, 19 negative tests (that we are aware of), and 2 pending tests. Average of 4-10 contacts per positive case. Aggertt plans to use volunteers for contact tracing when necessary to keep from overloading staff. Aggertt discussed positive/contact tracing process and testing/reporting process.

Aggertt discussed National Stockpile and other outlets for PPE, how shipments are sent/received. There have been some issues with shipments. Woodford County EOC is distributing available PPE to requesting agencies, such as long-term care facilities. WCHD transferred any stock that we had received to Woodford County EOC. Agencies have been making masks that have also been distributed. Emily Barker discussed how these have been made and distributed by her agency.

Health Departments are responsible to authorize testing based on the latest matrix. They are also responsible to follow up with any positive cases and contacts. We continue to share information for the public on our Facebook page and website.

Testing location at McLean County fairgrounds can process 250 tests per day.

Aggertt discussed what disaster proclamations looked like and what they meant. Also discussed what agencies are responsible for what actions, both locally and regionally.

Aggertt discussed Governor’s executive orders and expressed support of the orders to keep residents safe. Aggertt also understands the impact that the order is having on the local economy.

Tri-County health departments have tried to standardize disease investigation protocols to keep process consistent throughout the area. Peoria will be hosting Zoom training tomorrow to train some volunteers and employees to use REDCAPP.

Aggertt commended OSF, Advocate and Unity Point systems for their willingness to work together.

Aggertt gave an update on what WCHD staff duties look like currently and what precautions are in place when employees must be in the office. She also reported on what the virtual workplace looks like for WCHD.

Aggertt touched on mental health for staff. She checks in with staff regularly to make sure that they are doing ok and providing any resources should a need arise.

MISC:

Next Meeting

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn made by Jim Johnson, seconded by Dr. Cole. Motion passed. Meeting ended at 8:30.

https://www.woodford-county.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03302020-1044