Health Department leaders struggle to fill open positions and deal with both the public and commissioners
By HOLLY GASKILL
While the Wells County Health Board continues to struggle to fill open positions, the department’s normal activities, such as responding to public health complaints, have been constrained by directives from the Wells County Commissioners.
During the health board’s meeting Thursday morning, board members revisited the ongoing issue of understaffing in the department. Marlene Hoag, interim administrator, advised there has been little progress regarding hiring for multiple reasons.
Firstly, Hoag said there has not been clarity with the advertisement of the position she currently occupies. Before retiring last fall, Hoag’s technical title was deputy administrator and vital records clerk. While Hoag advised that administrative responsibilities and vital records should be two full-time positions, she told the board that commissioner feedback regarding the postings has been unclear.
“As I’ve said before, a year ago — I’m not out there to be hired,” Hoag said. “It’s not that it’s rocket science and there’s nobody that can be hired for this position, it’s just a lot of on-the-job training. Public health is forever changing.”
That being said, Hoag has hired a part-time vital records clerk, Sahara Wall, to fill the position that opened in August. Hoag said she has not had any promising applications for the environmental specialist (septic) position, which has been vacant since June, or the part-time medical assistant position.
“It just seems unfair to me, that you folks who are handling this burden (of work), are also expected to find your own replacements,” stated Dr. Mary Donley, health board member. “Isn’t that the job of the county commissioners? Are you getting support? Are they helping with the search or is it just being dumped on the board to handle this problem that is not the board’s responsibility?”
Hoag responded that it’s been common practice for individual offices to search for their replacements. Donley repeated her question, “Are they doing enough to help?”
“(The commissioners) have said they would be receptive to whatever we throw at them,” said Lynn Blevins, public health nurse.
Although no commissioners were present at Thursday’s meeting, they have been involved in health board conversations since the department had two full-time employees resign in June.
However, the commissioners threatened to remove a health board member in August, given what they perceived as a lack of action from the board. All members of the health board, which currently includes six of seven possible members, are appointed by the commissioners.
“It seems like you’re being tasked with an impossible job, and I think that’s unfair,” Donley continued.
“Public health is really strange right now,” Hoag said. “I’ve said for years, every time I hire somebody, I tell them, ‘Health departments or public health is the red-headed stepchild.”
“Much like you see so much with everything, when it’s needed — like during COVID — you know, we were superheroes for doing what we could … And we were praised for that, and it was much appreciated,” Blevins added. “But now we’re back (to where we were before). We’re not the favorites. We’re ‘government overreach.’”
Board member Steven Bales emphasized the job market has been difficult for every business and organization, not just healthcare. Blevins reiterated this — “It’s just a time of high demand and low supply.”
Although short-staffed, the department has continued to field public health complaints. Hoag shared two recent complaints with the board Thursday, noting that the property owners had only recently received notice of their respective issues. She advised the delay came from the commissioners’ request for Dr. Kay Johnson, health officer, and themselves to be notified first.
“As background to all of this, what we identified was a need for better internal communication with this board, especially with the commissioners, based upon what happened several months ago with a particular inspection that just kind of morphed into all of this situation,” Johnson said, referring to a situation where Yergy’s State Road BBQ received differing recommendations during two health inspections in the last year.
Johnson continued: “So, as we discussed it, at our end, I thought it was a good idea that if something were more than routine and we had to start looking at enforcement, or perhaps some punitive action … we needed to involve this board and also the commissioners for input … The intent is not that we don’t know what we’re doing or don’t understand the code or what should be done to handle certain complaints, but to increase communication so we don’t get criticized or, you know, our heads taken off.”
“In these couple of instances, this has been going on four weeks now because we notified everybody and waited for a response before we moved ahead,” Hoag stated. “And that’s sad — three to four weeks.”
Bales responded that he “did not see the point” of going through this process, given the county attorney reviews protocol and notices. He said it was worthwhile to keep communication open, but not every step needed the commissioners’ permission.
“You’re saying we’ve held things back waiting for (the commissioners) to respond,” Bales said. “I don’t know why they would respond — they normally wouldn’t have to … They probably read it, and they’re aware of it, but they would probably assume you already went and sent things out.”
Hoag replied, “I agree with what you’re saying. It’s just (that) in the past, whenever we have acted upon a complaint, and the information goes differently to somebody else, then we’re the bad guy that nobody knew anything about that situation.”
“Then they need to change, not you,” Bales said. Hoag pointed at him and nodded, then replied, “We’re following what has been requested of us. I think (health board president) Chris (Esterling) can attest to that.”
Blevins and Johnson affirmed this, noting they wanted to avoid “unnecessary criticism.”
Lewis Brown, superintendent of the Regional Sewer District, likened the situation to instances with former commissioners and septic issues, saying the interference “strips the health department of any enforcement.”
Hoag added that officials, when breached with complaints, have jumped to criticize the health department rather than seek more information from the department. Furthermore, she said the “gray areas” of the Indiana Code should be left to legal authority.
“It usually comes down to support to a resident over support to the health department,” Hoag stated.
All board members were present for the meeting. The next scheduled meeting of the health board is 6:30 a.m. Dec. 21 in the meeting room of the Wells County Carnegie Annex Building.
Other updates during Thursday’s the meeting included:
• Blevins offered Naloxone training to all three local schools and will soon deliver doses to the Wells County Sheriff’s Office. He noted that October has provided particularly gruesome statistics for overdoses, with at least four suspected overdoses from individuals ages 14 to 23 within the first weekend of the month. Blevins did not have further information regarding the outcome of those cases.
• Brown advised the RSD has encountered a delay in finishing Craigville connections. The RSD is also working on Kingsland and will request funding for Tocsin next year.
• Daniel Miller, environmental specialist in the food division, reported Ossian Days and Bluffton Street Fair had no notable issues.
holly@news-banner.com
