The regular meeting of the Columbus Board of Health was held in the
Administration Conference Room of the Health and Human Services Center on
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, at 1:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jim Wetherington, Mayor
James H. Sullivan, M.D.
Mrs. Brenda Dozier
Howard Willis, M.D.
James A. Lawrence, D.D.S.
Banks H. Carroll, M.D.
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Isaiah Hugley, City Manager
OTHERS PRESENT:
Zsolt Koppanyi, M.D.
Bill Rumer, Attorney
Ed Saidla
Margaret Gosden
Pam Middleton
LaQuita Rogers
Cheryl Johnson
Karon Bush
Shawn Taylor
Dr. Sullivan called the meeting to order and asked for a motion to approve the
minutes of the last meeting. A motion was made by Dr. Carroll, seconded by Ms.
Dozier and approved by those members present.
Dr. Sullivan stated there were no Excused Absences for this meeting.
Dr. Sullivan asked if there was any Old Business.
Dr. Sullivan also mentioned the Action List which at the present time has no
items pending. Mr. Saidla mentioned in regards to a former Action List item
that Mr. Richard Young of the Governor?s Office/Planning and Budget visited the
health department on May 22, 2007 asking various questions about public health.
Mr. Saidla stated that he and Ms. Gosden both discussed the issue raised by
this Board that premarital blood tests should be reinstated with HIV testing
included. Mr. Young made note of this issue for inclusion as a major public
health Legislative Action for the purposes of planning. An opportunity was
opened to raise this issue with Mr. Young. Ms. Gosden stated that the Board had
expressed the desire to reinstate testing with HIV added in two different
public forums where the Division of Public Health and DHR were involved. Dr.
Koppanyi stated that in the 2007 Legislative Session, a bill to start HIV
testing in all pregnant women was introduced. A law was being considered and
requests concerning costs were forwarded to the District. Staff worked up the
figures and the information was given to Dr. Brown. Dr. Koppanyi stated that
$482,000 was the amount that was needed. To his knowledge the opportunity was
lost as a result of the action by the Division.
Dr. Sullivan asked if there was any New Business.
Mr. Saidla stated that he had an item and a hand out. Mr. Saidla stated that
this past week, Dr. Koppanyi was presented the Joe Lane Cox Excellence in EMS
at the State EMS banquet in Forsyth. Dr. Koppanyi was congratulated for his
recognization for his work with Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Medical
Services. Ms. Gosden stated that Dr. Koppanyi was recognized for his advocacy
for pediatric accommodations in the EMS system. The system, when Dr. Koppanyi
arrived here, was locally inadequate in terms of necessary equipment. This has
been one of the main areas Dr. Koppanyi has advocated for since he came to us
10 years ago. The children of our District and the State are now better served
by the EMS System.
Dr. Sullivan asked Dr. Koppanyi and Mr. Saidla to address the Board reporting
information from the meeting held yesterday with Dr. Janice Carson.
Dr. Koppanyi stated that a letter was received from the Office and Planning and
Budget in Atlanta concerning a joint evaluation with the Division on the
functioning of public health and the local GIA allocation. Apparently there is
confusion over what Grant-in-Aid means and what it is used for. We were the
first District visited in the evaluation process and were asked to assist the
team in developing questions that would be asked in other Districts. There was
a basic template with some issues added. Both Ms. Gosden and Mr. Saidla, having
20+ years with the State Government were viewed as most able to answer the
questions. Each person that was interviewed spoke with them around 1 -1-l/2
hours. They are going to five different counties and eventually will develop a
questionnaire to be distributed to all GIA employees in county health
departments. They will have a report by July 2008 with a goal of more equitable
distribution of the GIA formula. At the same time, the Directors have been
meeting privately and having some discussions to present to the Director and
Commissioner some concerns. The current budget contains large gaps left by a
6.13% increase in the employee?s share of the employee health insurances,
raises for some selected employee categories and performance based raises of 3%
in January, 2008. Ms. Gosden stated they have been meeting with each of the
counties in the last week. The Muscogee budget has not been done.
Peachstate and Wellcare are still being pursued for payment and Ms. Gosden
discussed the impact of the CMO. They have been very slow and have used payment
crisis upon local budgets avoiding tactics imagines. Most recently Peachstate
had directed the health department to submit paper claims on over 500 claims
for Marion County. Ms. Gosden informed them that is not an acceptable system.
They would hear from Mr. Bill Rumer, Attorney for the health department
concerning a law for non-payment. The services were rendered in good faith and
the health department had no responsibility for data entry problems they
experienced. These figures were also given to Mr. Young for each county to show
what has been lost to fund FY2008 operations. Ms. Gosden stated that Mr.
Richard Young was encouraged to meet with Dr. Sullivan, Dr. Carroll and Dr.
Willis and visit a smaller county to get the best view of how things like the
CMO issue affect local Public Health Operations. He has been encouraged to
visit Webster County and meet with Marie Hunter and Mr. Dave Wills. This will
be a good representation of a poor, rural county with one nurse and one clerk.
Mr. Saidla stated that he hoped that the CMO funds would come in prior to June
30th so that they can be counted as Earned Income for this fiscal year.
Mr. Saidla announced that Commissioner Walker will be in attendance in Columbus
next Tuesday evening on the lst floor to hold a community forum. If anyone is
interested in attending, he has information for you for on- line registration.
This is a new way and they are calling this the ?Roundtable Discussions?
concerning the future of DHR. (Handout information was given out)
Dr. Sullivan asked if the Board Members had turned in their evaluations on Dr.
Koppanyi.
Ms. Dozier stated that she had met with part of the education committee at
Columbus Roberts Center with Eddie Ogleton. A representative from the
Government Center/Public Access, Dick Ellis was there as well as someone from
Ethan College and a student nurse. A discussion occurred regarding how you
convey to the parents of the students enrolled in the school district about how
their academics would be carried out in the event of a pandemic flu situation.
One of the questions that was asked was how would the hearing impaired receive
communications. The regular TV stations have a way to scroll the information on
the bottom of the screen but the public access station does not have that
capability (closed caption). The questions to Ms. Albritton were there a grant
or funds that were available in order to make that happen or what? Mr. Saidla
stated that Ms. Rogers had a lot of involvement with the hearing impaired
community. Ms. Rogers stated that several meetings had been held with Mr. Riley
Land about some of the issues and concerns. This group is very pro-active in
working on finding avenues and grants to help put some things in place that we
can have more closed caption channels as well as providing other things. Ms.
Dozier asked if this was the responsibility of some organization to provide
that to the city government? Should this not be in reverse that the city
government should provide this for the people in the community? Mr. Saidla
stated that the Mayor?s Committee on Disabilities is having several public
forums where the health department has participated in dealing with emergency
preparedness issues and surely there are some avenues that can be looked at.
Dr. Sullivan called on Pam Middleton to present the financial report to the
Board. There a brief discussion regarding this issue.
Mr. Saidla stated that the Mayor?s Committee for Persons with Disabilities is
having a panel discussion on Wednesday, June 6th at the Columbus Library at 1pm
until 4pm.
Dr. Sullivan called on Shawn Taylor, Environmentalist-Arbovirus -Mosquitoes for
the presentation to the Board.
Dr. Sullivan asked if there was any other business to discuss. There being
none, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted:
_______________________________________
Pam Middleton, Secretary
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