Supervisors visit Marion County Public Health

KNOXVILLE — Standing in one of several meeting rooms at the Marion County Public Health Department building, an echo could almost be heard when speaking. The department moved into the 14,000 square foot building in 2011 and has grown leaps and bounds delivering more, better services to the county it serves.

In an effort to better understand what the Jasper County Health Department and neighboring public health organizations responsibilities and duties are, supervisors Joe Brock and Doug Cupples along with JCHD Director Becky Pryor and public health coordinator Kristina Winfield toured the public health facilities for Marion County on Tuesday.

Marion County Public Health Director Kim Dorn led the group around the department’s building located in what was a former farm and home store in Knoxville. Dorn said prior to the department taking occupancy, it had 23 people in about 3,500 square feet.

“It got to be kind of a fire hazard, they had to do something with us,” Dorn said. “The supervisors at the time knew they needed to do something with us because we just couldn’t fit there, we couldn’t provide services there, it got to where we were renting space all over town to do clinics and programming. It was just a mess.”

Following a failed business venture, the building was taken by the bank and was purchased by county. Dorn said from there a lot of remodeling was done, with a large portion of the costs paid for with grant money.

“We had a set of supervisors who made the commitment. They said we know you need better accommodations,” Dorn said.

Upon moving in, the department was able to grow and expand to its current level of services. Brock asked what all the department has been able to supply for services after moving to the new, bigger location in comparison to what it previously did.

“Pretty much everything,” Dorn said. “You just can’t even compare what we do know with what we did then. We didn’t have any room to do it, we didn’t have the facilities for people to come in to.”

The services currently provided by the department include Care for Yourself, Child Care Nurse Consultant, Emergency Response, Environmental Health, First Five, Hawk-I, Homemaker, Immunizations, I-Smile, Lead, Maternal Child Health, Parents as Teachers, Preschool Tuition Assistance, Public Health Nursing, Tobacco Free Coalition, Mental Health and WIC. For many of the services Marion County is also the fiscal agent.

Pryor asked about the structure both of the board of health and supervisors in Marion County including if the county currently has a supervisor serving on the health board. Dorn said she does have a supervisor on the board of health and finds having the representation very beneficial with one contact person who really understands what the department is doing and why it is doing it.

Dorn also emphasized the importance of having knowledgeable supervisors when it comes to the public health department.

“You can get a supervisor that doesn’t understand public health, thinks it’s one of those ‘women’s work’ boring stuff. They don’t understand the contribution to the community that public health makes It can make it really difficult and it can be really rough,” Dorn said. “If you spend enough time to help people understand what you do and how you benefit and the return on investment, then it takes a lot of work.”

Brock asked Dorn about a couple of common responses he hears when he asks constituents about public health.

“I keep hearing over and over is that public health should go to the patients,” Brock said. “I’ve also been having trouble drumming up a lot of excitement over public health.”

Dorn said ideally, the best public health is done out in the public but they also need a place to land and do the work that requires equipment located in an office setting. Winfield also chimed in that not hearing about public health is typically a good thing because it means the department is doing its job and no crisis is taking place.

“Since we’ve implemented the ‘There is no wrong door’ policy, our foot traffic in here has gone crazy,” Dorn said. “People don’t have to figure out where to go. They just know they can come out here and we will point them in the right direction, make a call.”

The board has the opportunity to tour another public health department in the Poweshiek County Health Department on Dec. 5 and will participate in an informative meeting with Iowa Department of Public Health Regional Community Health Consultant Heather Bombei on Dec. 12.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com