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Secretary of Health and Florida Surgeon General Ana Viamonte Ros,
foreground, was a keynote speaker. She was accompanied by
Deputy Secretary of Health Lillian Rivera.
Florida surgeon general visits HCHD
JAY FELSBERG
Managing Editor
afelsberg@chipleypaper.com
Under recent legislation Florida now has a surgeon general. Dr. Ana
Viamonte Ros visited Holmes County Wednesday, September 12.
A number of community and health officials were on hand as Ros discussed
a number of health-related issues. She was meeting with several small
departments on Friday as well.
Ros said that the 17,000 employees of the Florida Health Department and
the hundreds of programs the department administers face budget cuts
just like the rest of state government. “We are trying to make the cuts
as palatable as possible,” Ros said. She said that most of DOH cuts
would come in the central office, with the department’s IT section a
major concern.
“The special session begins in October, and I feel we can go back and
make the case for the IT departments and to make exceptions for the
county health departments.” There are 23 Children’s Medical Services
units and 67 county health departments. “We’re here to help, support and
advocate for you,” Ros said.
Ros said that one project planned by DOH is a study of fee schedules for
state health services. “No one has ever done an analysis,” she said. A
business model is needed to sustain county health departments.
Deputy Secretary of Health Lillian Rivera was also on hand, and noted
that it is essential that there be community involvement to provide
effective county health care. “We can’t do this alone,” she said.
Rivera is the former director of the Miami Health Department, and she
said she is “always in awe of how small health departments do it.”
Rivera called the employees “jacks of all trades.” She also noted how
much “folks in the community help you.”
One example of a such a community effort was described by Holmes County
Health Director Holly Segers. Health Homes is a joint effort by HCHD,
CASE Coalition, the CARE anti-drug effort, Home Health, Doctors Memorial
Hospital, and area hospices. The effort will include mobile health fairs
throughout the county going from work site to work site, including
health screenings. The first fair will be in February.
A number of issues were discussed, including:
•Providing more work force development.
•Describing Gov. Charlie Crist as being very supportive of the health
department. “He believes that a unified health service helps prepare for
statewide emergencies,” Ros said. “He wants to strengthen health
departments.”
•County Administrator Greg Wood noted a need for catastrophic health
care relief and affordability for small communities. He said one way to
accomplish this was to have a $500,000 cap to get costs down and spread
costs across a larger pool. This would also help taxpayers.
•Indigent health care is a significant cost for counties, and many
people using emergency rooms for primary care is placing a burden across
those counties.
•Small health departments have to process transportation using Medicaid
through a separate process. Ros questions why this was so.
•Improvements are needed to improve access by computer. Holmes County
has applied for a Broadband grant to improve access.
•Ros said the governor considers it important to have school health
care. Rivera said another initiative in this area will come from the
Council on Physical Fitness after it completes a study on physical
education and nutrition.
•Development Commission Board Chairman Gary Deal asked if Ros believed
that good health care helped economic development, and Ros agreed that
people look at the quality of health care when they look to move to an
area.
•Deal also noted the problem of teen pregnancy. “It derails the career
path of a lot of young mothers,” he said.
Ros agreed. “If these girls do not see the future potential of a way to
succeed in life they fall back,” she said. “It’s the culture they know.”
Rivera also agreed. “It’s a multi-factor problem,” she said. “It’s the
culture within the immediate family that it’s okay to be a teen mother.”
Rivera said the situation is not confined to rural areas like Holmes
County, but is equally prevalent in metro areas like Miami.
“Teen pregnancy keeps these girls in the poverty cycle. We have to
empower them, giving them the audacity to hope.”
Preventing teen pregnancy takes the effort of many organizations,
including ministries. While the state promotes abstinence education, it
is also necessary to talk about contraception.
Holmes County Health Department offers free pregnancy tests.
•Rivera said the number one health care problem nationwide is literacy,
lack of which limits access to health care information. “Invest in
literacy and tie in with other organizations,” she said. “It opens up a
whole new world.”
•It is hard for small counties like Holmes to recruit medical
specialists due to lower available wages. A statewide work group is
looking at recruiting.
•Florida is 48th in providing mental health care and second in suicide
rate, and more mental health care is needed. Mental health and
alcoholism are the two biggest causes of disability.
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