BOARD OF HEALTH MINUTES

September 8, 2005

George Kellner called the Board of Health to order on September 8, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.

Attendees: Rita Hart, Lynn Jones, George Kellner, Pam Willis, Jane Messer,

Margie Pollitt, Cammie Mitrione, Dr. Barry Webb and Mayor

Doyle Webster

The minutes of May 12, 2005 were approved.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS - none

NEW BUSINESS

New FSO and RFE Fees

Mrs. Mitrione said the 2006 fees are based on the last complete year (2004). She said there was no food sampling in 2004. There also was no expense charged back to the employee training program because the employees paid for the class. Mrs. Mitrione said she believes next year the fees will be higher because we have the food sampling program, cold food sampling program, as well as recouping for the three-hour food safety class.

Mrs. Jones asked why they couldn’t keep the 2005 fees. Mrs. Mitrione explained you can’t charge more than was put into the program for the last complete year. Mrs. Jones then asked how much of a loss would it be for the coming year. Mrs. Mitrione said she didn’t have that number but could get it.

HEALTH COMMISSIONER’S REPORT

River Valley Exercise

Mrs. Mitrione stated the River Valley Exercise involved the whole southwest region. Hospitals, laboratories, public health and EMA (Emergency Management Agency) participated. Emergency Operation Centers were set up for the counties and Departmental Operational Centers for the smaller health departments. The Fire and Police Departments participated also. We had a unified command with the Health Department in charge. All Health Department employees participated in various capacities. Mrs. Mitrione said because there was a failure with public notice releases, they redid the communication plan. There was a three-person, pre-designated clearance team of health commissioners who had to approve the message before it went out for the region. They decided that the Incident Commander would designate two other people, probably health commissioners, to approve press releases. Mrs. Mitrione said next year she will be more prepared to implement incident command and designate people to do specific tasks. She said she is signed up for an all-day class for incident command specifically for public health, and also a three-day training session with other administration here at the City. The City is going to implement a reverse 911 system to be able to alert residents to incidents.

Hotel/Motel Inspection Program

Mrs. Mitrione said we have received complaints about Ramada Plaza, Hampshire House, Howard Johnson. She said she did inspections based on the complaints. She said she realized that those three places in particular, are run by people not from originally from this country and she feels their standards may be different than ours. She said we need to tell them what the standards are and that they expect them to meet them. Mrs. Mitrione said we have a hotel/motel regulation that is adequate for now. She said it has them looking at common areas, general sanitation, bedding, etc. In the past the inspection has consisted of a sanitarian going in once a year to each motel and spot-checking some rooms. Mrs. Mitrione stated she feels that they need to look at each motel and look at all or at least half of the rooms.

Mayor Webster said we may want to look at our regulation and set some criteria that allows the Health Department to contract with somebody to go in and inspect every single room. He said we don’t have the resources to do that. He said as the places get a bad reputation, then the City gets a bad reputation.

Mrs. Mitrione stated she was talking with the owner of Super 8 Motel and he said most of the corporations have inspectors come in every few months. She said maybe that would be the time for the Health Department to get with them and go through every room. Mrs. Mitrione said she has contacted outside agencies to do this but she said the ones she contacted only looked at common areas and were very expensive. She said Mayor Webster told her Blue Ash contracts out their inspections. She said they responded to her and said they didn’t have sanitarians in their employ. Mrs. Mitrione said our ordinance is a local ordinance and it does not say the inspector has to be a sanitarian.

Cryptosporidium Outbreak

Mrs. Mitrione said she talked with a Hamilton County epidemiologist who believes that there was a P&G diaper study that took place at the Powell Crosby YMCA where the outbreak happened. She said there were quite a few confirmed cases in the southwest region. Tim Ingram of Hamilton County became the incident commander. Mrs. Mitrione said she had received a call from a reporter asking what Springdale was doing with the situation. She said the Health Department hand delivered a letter and poster from CDC stating poolside hygiene etiquette. The incident command leader decided to send letters to day cares as well, and to exclude day care workers and children who had been diagnosed with the virus for three days. Mrs. Mitrione said she and Jane Messer discussed it and said it takes a week to show symptoms after you contract the parasite and you could be shedding the virus for weeks after that. To exclude somebody for three days is arbitrary. She said just yesterday a Springdale family called the nurse and thought they had contracted the disease. They were set up to bring in stool samples but then said they were all okay. Ms. Messer said she was sure they had it but there was nothing else they could do.

ServSafe Classes

Mrs. Mitrione reported that they presented a class in July. Seven people had signed up but only five actually attended. She said it was a good opportunity for our new employee, Jane Kay to practice her training skills. Mrs. Mitrione said she did a three-hour training class for the Market Day representatives. She said they trained the managers so they could train the school employees on how to sample properly. She said they just finished two employee classes at Frisch’s and she has scheduled a ServSafe class in Mandarin Chinese. She said she contacted the Columbus Health Department, who offers the class fairly regularly. Mrs. Mitrione said they have to have twenty participants signed up for the class. She said she has sent the registration form to all districts in southwest Ohio and to restaurants in the area.

SOS Update

Mrs. Mitrione said SOS has received its IRS non-profit organization approval. She said the group is trying to recruit volunteers and to let people know that they have volunteers who can help them. SOS sent a letter to the local churches asking them to become members of SOS. Mrs. Mitrione said there will be a parenting class at the Community Center. She said SOS, through the Health Department, sold cooling bandanas as a fund raiser. They raised over $200.

Willows Pool Party

Mrs. Mitrione reported that they partnered with the management to have a pool party at The Willows and it went well. She said the Police Department and another organization were there also. She said it was a good opportunity to get some information out to the people.

Mammogram Van

Mrs. Mitrione stated the mammogram van was at the Community Center again in July. Seventeen women signed up for a mammogram. She said they are scheduled to come again in January.

Presentation to Institute of Medical and Dental Technology

Mrs. Mitrione said she gave a presentation about the Health Department to the Institute. She said it went well.

New Employee

Mrs. Mitrione reported that the Health Department has a new employee, Jane Kay. She is a retired Cincinnati sanitarian and will work part-time as inspector for food establishments, pools, schools and hotels/motels.

Community Health and Wellness Speakers

Mrs. Mitrione said there were six Community Health and Wellness speakers scheduled at the Community Center this year as a result of the Community Health Assessment. The series has not been well attended. She said they may cut the series in half for the next year.

Complaints

Mrs. Mitrione said there have been many complaints from residents at The Willows. She said the buzz word is mold and there have been several complaints about bathroom leaks and condensation lines for air conditioning units. Mrs. Mitrione said there is a language problem there and some things that really need to be done are not getting done.

NURSE’S REPORT

New Patients

Ms. Messer said she has been making home visits to The Meadows at Maple Knoll. She said she’s not sure why because they have their own home health agency there.

Reportable Diseases

Ms. Messer said most of the reportable diseases have been for Hepatitis C.

Flu Vaccine

Ms. Messer stated that she had received the first hundred doses of flu vaccine. She has not received the State vaccine yet.

Respectfully submitted,

Cammie Mitrione, RS

Health Commissioner