Board talks flu, Zika
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 12, 2016 1:46 PM
In the midst of a mild flu season, there are still vaccines available at the Health Department, Health Director Davin Madden told the Board of Health on Wednesday.
He also addressed the Zika virus, gave a status report on the community health surveys and mobile dental clinic and efforts being made to "improve the patient experience" at the Health Department.
Madden said there are currently 300 flu vaccines left, out of more than 1,000 the department had this year.
"This is about where we were last year so we'll probably see a push from people who are late coming for their flu vaccines," he said.
An internal audit of the vaccination program was also encouraging, he said.
"On the bright side of our immunization audit, Wayne Health Department's immunization rate was 91 percent," he said. "Our goal was 90 percent. We exceeded our expectations rate for that.
"The county rate, though, was at 70 percent for immunizations, and this is specifically targeting the N.C. Immunization Registry, for all 24- to 35-month-old active residents. The county goal was 76 percent so we're still falling short on a countywide immunization rate based on what we're trying to do to meet our compliance numbers. So that's something we're pushing and have already taken some action on."
Madden said he met with Dr. David Tayloe of Goldsboro Pediatrics to discuss ways to enhance communication, engage parents and work toward getting children immunized and in compliance with the state recommendations.
He also touched on the Zika virus that has been in the news lately. Travel notices have been issued to people traveling to certain countries and pregnant women in particular.
A mosquito-borne illness, no cases have been reported in North Carolina, he said.
"The threat level is still low but we're always prepping and planning," he said. "The main thing, with the conference call (he had Wednesday) is they're disseminating guidance on how we're going to change our protocol for pregnant women that have a travel history to any of the areas on the registry as well as anyone intending to get pregnant in the near future."
He said new information about changes in protocols is anticipated from the Centers for Disease Control soon.
More favorable reports were given about the mobile dental clinic and the community health assessment.
"We had a couple successful revenue months prior to this past month, that we were operating very well in the black on the (dental) unit," Madden said. "We did carry it over into Wilson County as the board is aware, to do our outreach there with them."
The unit was taken to its first school in Wilson, in the Stantonsburg area. There were, however, some challenges.
The first was the power supply, prompting them to utilize a generator.
"But the only trouble was it was the only generator the county had so one of the days when we had a cold snap, the generator had to be pulled from the unit, so of course it put us down," he said.
Because of that, student numbers on the dental van were lower, he said.
"My expectation was 30 students minimum for us to be really worthwhile to move the unit," he said. "So we didn't quite meet that benchmark, so in order for us to make sure we got a successful model I pulled the unit back to Wayne County."
It is currently at Spring Creek Elementary School, he said, and has proven to be a smooth transition.
"We've already received over 130-something forms to date there. They're screening those for eligibility so I think we're going to have a good turnout so far. More are incoming," he said, adding, "I told Wilson County this is not a permanent disconnect, if you will. We still want to continue to look at a partnership in the future.
"But for the sake of everybody being comfortable and for the financial stuff for me to be comfortable with it, especially if we're going to work on some more readiness planning so we don't run into any of these unexpected unknowns that make me a little jittery, we're just going to go back to our other contingency plans."
Shamika Howell, public health education supervisor, gave an update on the 2016 community health assessment.
"We have reached our deadline, Monday, Feb. 9, for all electronic and paper surveys," she told the board. "Our goal for surveys was 400. We have reached over that goal. We're at 700, over 700 surveys."
The department also conducted six focus sessions, inviting community members to participate in an effort to attract a diverse representation.
She said she felt that was accomplished, with groups convened at Boys and Girls Club, the Soup Kitchen, WATCH, Salvation Army, Literacy Connection and Fairview Homes.
The Health Department is still working with Wayne Memorial Hospital on compiling the data by the March 1 deadline.
Madden also shared plans to streamline the check-in process for patients.
There has been some concern about patient privacy at the main registration window, especially on Fridays, he said. With a central clinic where all services share one registration area and one set of examination areas, a backlog of clients has developed.
"People may be there for communicable disease (clinic), people there for family planning and so on, and all the information is just kind of open, flowing. We didn't like that. That puts confidentiality at risk," he said. "So we put together a team and we've come up with a new design for the whole main registration."
Plans are being put together to shift a hallway and have the registration staff in cubicle areas.
"I think it's going to improve the patient experience and the clients will feel much more comfortable," Madden said.