Columbus, Georgia

Georgia's First Consolidated Government

Post Office Box 1340
Columbus, Georgia, 31902-1340
(706) 653-4013
fax (706) 653-4016

Council Members

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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