LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Tippecanoe County Health Department voted unanimously Wednesday that the county’s next health officer must be a full-time position.
“We really appreciate the work that Dr. Loomis does,” said board chair Dr. Juliann Stout. “We basically had a pilot program for a full-time health officer. We had one person working as a full-time health officer and started a lot of new programs.”
The health department on Wednesday established a subcommittee to draft a detailed job description for a full-time health officer and present it to the Tippecanoe County Commissioners at their Aug. 19 meeting.
The health officer in Tippecanoe County has traditionally served in a part-time advisory capacity.
“Just because something has always been done a certain way, I want to have some assurance in my own mind that we are prepared to consider the fact that this county deserves a full-time health officer,” board member Carol Ott asked Commissioner Tracy Brown, who attended the morning meeting.
Brown said the position of full-time health officer is available for discussions.
Ott noted that the state’s Health First initiative encourages the hiring of full-time health officers and the creation of accredited county health departments. She suspects that following these recommendations will give the county a better chance of receiving future grants.
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Loomis has spent the past year developing a business model, including Health First Initiative funding, to get it off the ground. The model calls for a self-funding operation that bills Medicaid for patient services, which in turn will not burden taxpayers with the Department of Health’s expansions.
“Recommending a full-time health officer is, in my opinion, a no-brainer,” West Lafayette resident Pauline Shen told the board.
“We are the seventh largest county in the state of Indiana by population, and we don’t have a full-time health officer,” said Shen, a retired epidemiologist with the state health department. “In terms of public health, the state of Indiana is in the bottom half of the country. We’re no longer a small, rural, agricultural town.”
“I think it’s a pretty thankless job,” Shen said of the duties of a full-time health officer. “It’s a really important job. Public health is really important to our citizens.”
“I think it’s time,” said board member Dr. John Thomas. “I think we’re past the point where we’re debating whether or not we need a full-time health officer.”
“Certainly the health department is not the be-all and end-all of this decision,” Stout said. “The county commissioners have to approve the job description and salary at the first level, then the county council’s personnel committee and the county council. County human resources are involved here.”
“Once we have an approved job description and salary, as well as the allocation for the salary, we move to Phase 2, where we publish the description and then do the final steps with interviews and approvals.”
There is no clear timeline for the appointment of a new health officer. The next meeting of the body is scheduled for 7am on November 6.
Reach Ron Wilkins at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
