The Board of Health met 06/12/2024. There were two items on the agenda that pertained to tuberculosis in the Fox Cities. One was an action item, which was to review and approve the city’s existing Tuberculosis Screening Policy. The second was an information item regarding the Department of Public Health’s move to increase the full-time equivalent (FTE) for public health nursing from 4.0 to 4.1 due to a “significant influx of latent tuberculosis infections cases linked to the arrival of a large number of refugees” and “a noticeable rise in the utilization of the Pre Natal-Care coordination program.”
The policy was reviewed and approved unanimously, and the increase in public health nurse hours was discussed.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The Tuberculosis Screening Policy has existed for a number of years, but staff made some changes and revisions to make it PHAB compliant.
Public Health Deputy Director Sonja Jensen explained that the Health Department mainly conducted TB skin testing and also referred people to providers for blood testing. The purpose was to eliminate the spread of active tuberculosis by early identification and testing.
Any residents who have an identified exposure to tuberculosis are offered free testing through the city. Additionally, the city had implemented a one-year pilot program to offer tuberculosis screening and skin tests at a cost to non-residents who are looking for somewhere to go to get those services.
The policy includes links to clinical recommendations for testing and treating latent tuberculosis and clinical guidelines on the diagnosis of tuberculosis in adults and children.
The board members did not have any questions about the policy, but Mayor Woodford did take the opportunity to state, “I appreciate the ongoing efforts of our health department leaders in looking for ways to meet needs in the community and also—so identifying gaps in services—and also identifying ways to sustain the programs of the health department through opportunities like fees for service that that serve not only Appleton residents but those in surrounding communities. So, I just want to applaud the Dr. Sepers and Deputy Director Jensen and their team for identifying another opportunity to provide a service and also sustain the work of the Health Department.”
This updated policy was approved unanimously.
The Board of Health also reviewed the plan to increase the full-time equivalent for public health nursing from 4.0 to 4.1. Health Officer Charles Sepers told the board that this would be a budget neutral change that would increase the Health Department’s capacity to provide their Prenatal Care Coordination Program and take on the increasing latent tuberculosis infections that they were seeing. He noted that within the next 4-5 months they were expecting to see between 400 and 500 newcomers within the Fox Cities and newcomers from areas where tuberculosis was endemic typically required latent tuberculosis infection follow up.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1195145&GUID=44188A2C-4C9D-4AD0-8554-B061428A4A5F
Be the first to reply