Advisory Board Minutes
April 2010
Members present: Kay Ehlert, Cecil Flynn, Martha McReynolds (also LCHD staff member), Maribeth Thompson, Doug Turnbough, Bonnie White, Michael Johnston, Dr. Richard Humble, Terry Schlotman. LCHD Staff present: Nola Martz.
The meeting was opened at 6:30 p.m. with introductions.
Program Reports:
The Quarterly Report was shared with those present. The display from the National Wear Red event was still on display in the lobby. LCHD promoted businesses and members of the county to participate in this event this year by sending their photographs in for display on our “Wall of Red”. Response was very good.
Also associated with this event and the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute “Heart Truth” campaign on women’s heart disease, LCHD had once again been awarded a grant from NHLBI to help support the annual “Heart to Heart” women’s heart health event. This year’s event was held in Higginsville. Attendance was greater than ever before. Nola shared a summary from the participants’ surveys which were also very favorable.
LCHD has been awarded funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to expand outreach for Tetanus Booster immunizations that relate to new school entry requirements for fall 2010.
LCHD observed National Public Health Week April 5 – 9th. A number of media releases were sent out promoting public health activities.
Other Reports:
Nola shared several articles on the recently passed national Health Care Reform Bill. There was also some information on the proposed “fair tax” for Missouri.
Nola also presented members with information on the Enhanced Enterprise Zone that is under development in Odessa, and how these zones impact taxing entities in the county. There is no unfavorable impact associated with these zones for LCHD. Odessa is farther along in their process, but Higginsville and Lexington are also in the process of establishing EEZ’s in their communities.
H1N1 update--LCHD had given 3,129 H1N1 immunizations through April 3rd. We are still being advised by state and federal public health officials to continue to distribute vaccine to participating physicians and pharmacies as well as LCHD staff are still conducting outreach clinics. The supply is more than sufficient to provide the vaccine to any individual who wants it (no restrictions on priority groups remain). Production of the vaccine was staggered, so that some is now expiring, but there is still plenty that has an expiration date of up to a year. We still do not have information on whether this vaccine will be combined with the seasonal flu vaccine for fall.
There was no other business for the group. Meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.