DUKES COUNTY HEALTH COUNCIL
Thursday, January 25, 2007 Meeting Minutes
West Tisbury Public Safety Building
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Cindy Mitchell called the meeting to order at 7:30 AM and determined that a quorum was present. Attendees included: Susan Wasserman, Ron MacLaren, Jo Ann Murphy, Dedie Wieler, Paddy Moore, Olga Church, Cindy Doyle, Chris Knowles, Sarah Kuh, Antonio Teixeira, Tom Bennett, James Weiss, Bob Tonti, Tad Crawford, S. Pat Donegan, Matt Poole, Nancy Gilfoy, Ilene J. Klein, Jane Cleare, Janet Holladay, Julia Burgess, Shirley Fauteux, Sandra Polleys, Michelle Nepton, Amanda Hutchinson, and Jennifer Caton, Executive Assistant to record minutes.
NEXT MEETING:
The next meeting was set for February 22, 2007.
MVH Community Benefits Funding Update- Chris Knowles
Chris Knowles provided an explanation on how the Community Benefits Plan would work. He explained it is $2 million of Hospital money over a five-year period. There would be four funded areas. The first funding area would be for primary care. These funds would be received by the hospital. The second funding area would be for preventative care. The six town’s Boards of Health would receive $600,000. The third funded area would be for behavioral health and substance abuse in the amount of $400,000. The last area group would be for emerging needs and any new initiatives, and $20,000 over a five-year period for a total of $100,000 has been allocated for this area.
Chris Knowles explained that the funds for the behavioral health, substance abuse and emerging needs area would be accessed through a Request for Proposals. These Requests for Proposals would be made available county around springtime. The County will pass on the Request for Proposals to the Dukes County Health Council members and also post them on the County's website. The Request for Proposals will be scored and ranked from highest to lowest. The Request for Proposals scoring will be done by the Hospital, the Office of Healthy Communities, and the County's Associate Commissioner for Health Care Access.
There was a brief discussion regarding the funding for the Preventative Care area. There was some concern that the funds were subsidizing the Boards of Health's budgets. The disappointment was because there were so many opportunities to do preventive work within communities that are not related to the Boards of Health that could have been addressed. It was expressed that there was not much of an opportunity for the Health Council or community to be involved in the process.
Cindy Mitchell said that she had recommended to Winn Davis that those reviewing the request for proposals be a committee made up by the Associate Commissioner for Health Care Access and other members of the Health Council that would not be likely applicants.
Chris Knowles said the instructions for the grant proposals would be distributed to Cindy Mitchell and she would forward them to the Health Council Members.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
Deferred until February’s meeting.
Minutes:
Susan Wasserman/ Jo Ann Murphy Moved to adopt the May 25, 2006 Minutes, So Voted.
Paddy Moore/Susan Wasserman Moved to adopt the September 28, 2006 Minutes, So Voted.
Ron MacLaren/Olga Church Moved to adopt the October 26, 2006 Minutes, So Voted.
Dedie Wieler/Ron MacLaren Moved to adopt the November 30, 2006 Minutes, So Voted.
Health Council Committee/Programs and Issues Reports/Updates:
Coordinating Committee – Operations Evaluation (Cindy Mitchell):
There was a discussion regarding the role of the Coordinating Committee. Some people expressed concern that the Coordinating Committee shuld not become an Executive Committee, but only coordinate. It was agreed that an assessment tool would be developed and distributed to the members for a discussion. A flow diagram of how the Council has functioned over time and the bi-laws would also be distributed to the members.
Nominating Committee/Schedule for New Member Appointment:
Cindy Mitchell said that the Nominating Committee would aim for the February 22nd meeting to have a slate of nominations to present to the Health Council for their approval.
There was a discussion regarding if the nominations should be made before the Council had discussed the goals of the Council. It was agreed to work on the nominations in parallel of the evaluation and goal setting process.
Martha’s Vineyard Health Report - Paddy Moore:
Cindy Mitchell explained that Diane Becker and Charlie Silberstein released the Health Report to a small number of people with raw data. Paddy Moore explained that there were some discrepancies between the raw data and what has been published particularly in the area of alcohol use and mental health. She explained that those in the group who participated in the study were surprised to see the report published and released. She announced that the Foundation for Island Health was going to give all of the Health Report material, raw data and subsequent analyzes to the County for use as base line data for a profile of the County’s Public Health. The material will be kept at the County for future use.
Public Health Committee/Public Health Survey – Ilene Klein:
Ilene Klein provided a brief report, in which she said the Public Health CDC survey has been completed. She said the committee would be in the process of making the information available, after CDC completes the analysis and an initial report is made to the County Commissioners.
MA Health Insurance Reform/Commonwealth Care Outreach and Enrollment- Sarah Kuh:
Sarah informed the Council that the Vineyard Health Care Access Program has contracted with the State to hire someone to assist in public outreach and enrollment into the new Commonwealth Care Program. She explained that the program would roll out in multiple phases.
Bob Tonti said that the new program would impact the Women’s Health Network by reducing the number of sites and services available.
Continuum of Care Committee formally known as the Network Development Committee – Ron MacLaren:
Ron explained that the Committee is developing a communications tool to be used by providers to provide better communication. They are also developing a patient survey to identify what types of health care providers they have seen. This would give the provider a better understanding of the patients overall health needs.
Ron said the Committee’s long-term vision is to create a form of an “electronic medical record”. They are looking to work toward a solution that would eliminate cracks with in the system and prevent mistakes.
Other Business/Announcements
Medical Reserve Corp Update – Ron MacLaren
Ron provided a brief explanation of the Medical Reserve Corp. He explained that the group formed to react to pandemic flue or other emergency scenarios. He said they are applying for grants that would not only sign up volunteers, but would provide emergency management training. Ron announced that the MRC could be submitting an application to the Ambulatory Safety and Quality Research Grant.
Murray Frank Clerkship Update
Cindy Mitchell said that Murray Frank was honored with a press release, and that UMass has agreed to name the Rural Scholars Clerkship after Murray.
ADJOURNMENT: Cindy Mitchell adjourned the meeting at 9:35am
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Caton
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