Galion Board of Health Meeting

License holder hearing- As per the Board requirement of December 10, 2013, Mr. Ken Dye representing license holder Varsity Grille, LLC, presented the operational improvement plan. Mr. Dye emphasized focus on cold holding and person-in-charge. Ms. Zmuda stated that there will be another inspection before the end of the licensing period February 28, 2014. Mr. Dye agreed to fax/email daily logs to Ms. Zmuda. Mr. Schilling requested that Ms. Zmuda provide an informal assessment of operations prior to the final inspection. Mr. O’Leary suggested that the license holder conduct their own inspections for organizational compliance.

Amendment of November 20, 2013 minutes- Mr. Schilling made a motion to amend the November 20, 2013 Board of Health minutes to correct the error that shows Mr. Long voting on specific motions. Mr. Long, present at the call to order on that date, left prior to adjournment. Ms. Kerr seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.  

2013 Goals were reviewed:

1.     Accreditation of the Galion City Health Department

2.     Get Galion City’s fair share of PHEP funding restored-

3.     Rationalize Nursing Functions-

4.     Implement grade level food health inspections on Galion City Health Department website-

5.     Implement electronic board document system-

6.     Establish secure internet section to website for posting of internal documents, forms, manuals, policies, procedures-

7.     Implement use of credit card for payment of services-

8.     Review, revise and convert into an editable electronic document the department personnel manual-

9.     Develop set key metrics that the department will measure and track its performance –

10.  Develop and execute strategic goals with community organizations to deal with areas of concern shown in Community Health Assessment Survey-

11.  Communicate other major operational issues to assist the Board in understanding the organization’s business dynamics

Dr. Novack stated that he gave himself a “C” for accomplishing the 2013 goals. Though most were accomplished, there were several that were not.

Progress on the 2013 goals is described below:

1.     Accreditation of the Galion City Health Department*

Dr. Novack stated that there has been meager progress made toward accreditation. The reasons for this he relates to inexperience in starting an accreditation process, limitations in staffing and a document management system (DMS).

For 2014, he said that additional staffing with the part-time nurses at schools will relieve the Director of Nursing of some daily work. He also states that hiring an additional sanitarian will relieve the Director of Environmental of some daily work as well. This additional staffing will allow a more concerted effort on his part to delegate certain amounts of department-specific accreditation activities. He stated further that the new server and desktops will allow more flexibility in obtaining either a server-based or software-as-a-service (SaaS) DMS. He added that the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) will be upgrading the T1 internet service to one that is 2-3 times as fast. There was additional funding requested for 2014 for software upgrades that can include SaaS as well.

It is the hope of the staff to obtain consultancy for some aspects of the accreditation process. Much of the knowledge can be obtained from other health departments for free; however, a certain amount of expense may be incurred for detailed instruction and/or template formats that are known to be more likely to achieve accreditation.

The board, by unanimous consent, ranked accreditation progress as the highest priority for 2014. Working toward accreditation will likewise accomplish other 2013 goals that were not achieved. These are listed below:

 6. Establish secure internet section to website for posting of internal documents, forms, manuals, policies, procedures-

8.     Review, revise and convert into an editable electronic document the department personnel manual-

10.  Develop and execute strategic goals with community organizations to deal with areas of concern shown in Community Health Assessment Survey-

2.     Get Galion City’s fair share of PHEP funding restored-

This item was not accomplished and it will not be reviewed for 2014. It represents a board-level goal. Dr. Novack states that though the Crawford County General Health District (CCGHD) holds it is the public health preparedness provider for Crawford County, it is yet the responsibility of the Galion Board of Health to ensure that it is done. For 2014, Dr. Novack committed to work with the mayor and the safety services director for a city-wide all hazards planning document and training. 

Mr. Schilling noted that there are plans to have the boards of Galion City Health Department (GCHD) and CCGHD meet in 2014 for the topic of governance. These will be board level-discussions. Dr. Novack concurred that there are several areas of planning for the benefit of the people of Galion that will necessarily involve CCGHD.

3.     Rationalize Nursing Functions-

Dr. Novack stated that “rationalization” of the nursing services was not fully accomplished in 2013. The goal is to ensure that nursing activities will conform to targeted outcomes. The first area considered in 2013 was immunization. The board agreed at previous meetings that GCHD is the safety-net for childhood immunizations and that if anything, should be more accessible by this population. However, with the commercialization of influenza vaccination, it may be a better use of nursing services for other services that are more likely to accomplish improved health outcomes. Accordingly, the flu vaccine program for 2013 is currently being evaluated for cost/benefit. As of the writing of this document (December 30, 2013), the final revenue for flu clinics in September and October has not been received and will not likely be available by the January 14, 2014 Board of Health (BOH) meeting.

Mr. O’Leary requested that the commissioner interview school superintendents for quality reports on nursing services and need for additional services.

4.     Implement grade level food health inspections on Galion City Health Department website-

The Director of Environmental Health, Ms. Zmuda, having investigated the goal of providing a simple form of signage or other public communication for the purpose of easily comparing one restaurant’s inspection performance to any other, found that the ODH prohibits the use of “grades.”  Instead, the Board approved a window sticker that displays the restaurant’s most recent inspection date. Ms Zmuda has also arranged for a barcode on the sticker to link to galionhealth.org to access the actual report.

This measure will continue into 2014 to evaluate the full implementation of the window sticker.

5.     Implement electronic board document system-

This measure was accomplished in 2013. Through the subscription service of Blue Sky (bluskymeeting.com), board documentation now has an online presence and is accessible by the general public. While this measure will not be continued, board and public access to board actions will be monitored.

6.     Establish secure internet section to website for posting of internal documents, forms, manuals, policies, procedures-

This measure was not accomplished. It will be continued in 2014. With the installation of a new server, it is likely that off-site (internet-based) network access can be accomplished. This measure is also dependent on the acquisition of a DMS which is also pending.

7.     Implement use of credit card for payment of services-

This measure was not accomplished and will be continued for 2014.

8.     Review, revise and convert into an editable electronic document the department personnel manual-

This measure was not accomplished and will be continued into 2014.

9.     Develop set key metrics that the department will measure and track its performance

This measure was only partially accomplished to the board’s satisfaction. It is aimed at describing organizational and individual work at accomplishing the annual goals. Therefore, this is sort of a “meta” measure. That is, monthly presentations on this measure will be reporting on progress on all the other goals.

Dr. Novack pointed out that GCHD has through vital statistics a number of important health measures that the board should find useful in assessing the department’s progress toward health outcomes. Mr. Schilling asked that those reports of community health be presented “in context.” Those reports should be graphical and show changes over time.

10.  Develop and execute strategic goals with community organizations to deal with areas of concern shown in Community Health Assessment Survey

This measure must be a multi-year project and could not be accomplished in 2013. It will be continued in 2014. 

1.Accreditation of the Galion City Health Department

2.Customer Service

3.Rationalize Nursing Functions

4.Implement health inspections window stickers –

5.Establish secure internet section to website for posting of internal documents, forms, manuals, policies, procedures-

6.Implement use of credit card for payment of services-

7.Review, revise and convert into an editable electronic document the department personnel manual-

8.     Develop set key metrics that the department will measure and track its performance

9.Develop and execute strategic goals with community organizations to deal with areas of  concern shown in Community Health Assessment Survey -

10.Communicate other major operational issues to assist the Board in understanding the organization’s business dynamics

The board identified at least two priorities for 2014:

·         Accreditation

·         Customer Service