By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
It may not seem like an inmate’s toothache, obesity, suicide, breastfeeding, failing septic systems and restaurant inspections have much in common.
But all fall under the umbrella of care at the Wood County Health Department, and were discussed at Thursday’s meeting of the health board.
Also discussed was the fact that the state of Ohio expects local health departments to serve those needs and more – for very little state funding. Wood County Health Department gets $24,000 a year to serve 135,000 residents. That’s about 18 cents per person, per year.
“That’s for everything we’re expected to do to keep the public healthy,” Wood County Health Commission Ben Batey said to the board Thursday evening. “That’s pretty absurd.”
Batey said seven health commissioners from Northwest Ohio recently met with state legislators from the region to talk about funding.
“A lot of them were surprised at how poorly funded we are by the state of Ohio,” he said.
In addition to ongoing public health issues, there are often crises that come to the forefront for care – such as opiates, infectious diseases or suicide.
“When we’re doing our job well, nobody knows it,” Batey said.
But there are also individual needs that the health department tries to respond to. On Thursday, one such issue involved the dental needs of an inmate in the Wood County jail. Board member Richard Strow said he had been made aware of a prisoner with critical dental needs.
Batey said in the past, the inmates are not allowed to leave the jail for a medical need unless it is life threatening. The sheriff’s office doesn’t want inmates to use trips to the health center as a respite from jail.
Diane Krill, CEO of the Wood County Community Health Center, said the center has treated incarcerated patients in the past – but it must be for a serious problem.
In this case, the inmate has been seen by a dentist in the jail, and it was not deemed serious enough to transport him to the health center. But Strow said it seemed inhumane to deny the inmate proper care.
Batey said he would reach out to Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn again on the issue. “We are here to support them however we can.”
The board of health also discussed the number of restaurants that received multiple critical violations – repeatedly.
“There are some that just keep violating over and over again,” Strow said.
Lana Glore, director of environmental services at the health department, explained that some restaurants clean up after a bad inspection report, but then have the same or new problems during the next inspection.
“The problem is, you’ll educate and the next time you have a brand new face,” Glore said of turnover at restaurants. In some cases, absent managers add to the problems. And in other cases, language and cultural barriers create difficulties.
In an effort to do more despite very little state funding, the health department goes after many federal and state grants. The agency has been successful getting grants as large as $1.3 million for the health center to smaller grants like $11,000 for mosquito studies.
“We go after everything we can possibly go after,” Batey said.
