Agenda - 01-30-2007-2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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4fl&chmzr-+- 7--5 a To: ° Orange. County Board of Commissoners From: Orange County Board of Health Cc: Laura Blackmon, County Manager Donna Baker, Clerk to Commissioners Pam Jones, Purchasing and Central Services Director Rosemary Summers, Health Director Re. Space Needs for Health Department .Date: December 29, 2006 IR 6 4V' e JAN 0 3 Lqo cr;anne cou"yr Purt;i asfng ytli:!!" awli':,t .In November, the Board of Health heard, a report of the recommendations for the adoption of the Space Study proposed to the Board of Commissioners. There are several items of concern to the Board of Health that we want to make sure receive your consideration and attention. The Board is particularly concerned about the timing for addressing CURRENT space needs for the Health Department, The Department has acute needs in each of our current locations. According to the information provided, the earliest attention to heaith.department/social services needs will be 2010, even for planning purposes. The reallocation of vacated space does not take into account acute current service. needs of these. departments, The Board of Health is concerned because the populations served by the Health Department are unlikely to appear before Commissioners to, advocate for themselves. The Board wants to make sure that services to the northern parts of the county are not compromised. The Health Department is currently struggling with the space we. have now to serve our population adequately. The need estimates of square footage contained in the space study are current, not future needs. The Board was pleased to hear the Environmental Health staff will be accommodated in the new downtown Hillsborough county office campus. We concur with.the need to co-locate.this staff with the planning department for easy access for citizens, The current space needs for the services provided by this staff are estimated to be 5300 square feet. Within five years, we expect to have an additional 6 staff members and in l0 years 3 more (not included in this basic estimate). This figure also does not include access to shared conference space. The Board feels strongly that the environmental health staff should not be further "subdivided/' rather the entire staff needs to be accommodated in a single location.. It was unclear from the presentation whether the projected space to be constructed will be large enough for all of the functions intended to occupy that space. The staff will be pleased to work in collaboration with planners as this project moves forward. Each of our clinical facilities has acute needs. Laboratory facilities (including patient bathrooms for sample gathering) at Whitted are inadequate and do not meet.standards of care. Patient, privacy during check-in is also not adequate for either dental or personal health. It is more than apparent that the services that are offered in both personal health and dental health are constrained by a combination of facility restrictions and staffing. For example, the current facility at the Whitted Center will only accommodate two clinical teams providing health services. The demand for services exceeds the capacity of the facility to provide. these services efficiently: This results 'in patients often waiting for more than 30-45 minutes for an exam room to be available before services can be delivered.. The populations. that we serve have specific cultural needs as well that cannot be easily accommodated. For example, Latino clients often require a spouse and an interpreter during the visit. It is difficult to handle this in the current exam or interview rooms. Neither of the waiting rooms at SHSC and..Whitted is large enough to allow a separation of "sick".and "well" patients, This is standard practice in most doctor's offices to ensure that well patients do not become ill by contact in the waiting rooms. There are no separate exterior entrances to the negative pressure rooms.