To the residents of Fairfield County –

Locally, we’ve enjoyed the benefits of living in a relatively safe and healthy county for over 100 years. Sometimes we take those benefits for granted. We tend to assume:

• if there’s a flu pandemic or other health emergency, there will be people to help take care of us and tell us how to avoid illness;

• our restaurant and grocery store food is safe and won’t make us sick;

• our swimming pools are free of disease and our schools are safe.

• our neighbor’s septic system is not polluting our well or our stream.

• someone will investigate animal bites and follow up with any treatment that needs to occur to prevent rabies or other infections.

• someone will provide healthcare to those with little or no ability to pay.

Our residents can count on their health department to provide many vital services like the ones above. We all agree we need these services and many others that impact our health and safety every day. Your health department, partnering with county, statewide and federal agencies demonstrated its ability to respond quickly to the H1N1 pandemic as evidenced by the nearly 16,000 vaccinations given in 2009 alone.

To provide these important services, your Fairfield Department of Health relies on funding from a variety of sources. You might be surprised to know that the biggest source of our funding is from grants. Unfortunately, federal and state grant funding is down due to the economic times we live in. Some grants have been decreased – others eliminated this year. Fortunately, we should all be proud of the health department staff who works hard to obtain these grants to protect our health and save our county money. Through their efforts, many programs are still funded, and continue to benefit every one of us.

The second largest source of funds is from environmental fees and permits. As a category, these represent over 100 different fees ranging from restaurant licenses to immunizations. These fees are based on the cost of providing the
actual service or the amount deemed necessary and reasonable by the Board of Health so that the health department can continue to conduct normal business to provide these essential services. These fees are paid by those who use the services.

All fees are reviewed by the Licensing Council, made up of representatives of each of the industries being charged. For example, there is a representative on the Licensing Council who represents the food service industry in our county.
The Licensing Council members are appointed by the District Advisory Council (DAC), the group that reviews the overall health department budget. Fees are also approved by the Board of Health, and must have three readings before
approval.

The third largest category of revenue comes from the city and county contributions. This is local support your health department receives through property tax assessments calculated by the County Auditor’s Office.

Each year, your health department directors sit down and develop a budget based on community need and achieving mandated state and federal program goals. Every year it is a struggle to meet all of our program requirements – many of which are unfunded by the state. However, once this budget is in proper order, it is presented to the Board of Health for approval. This is a long process. We started working on our 2010 budget in early September of 2008.

Unfortunately, we cannot anticipate what may happen two years in advance. The combination of a bad economy, Pickerington’s recent decision to contract services from Franklin County in 2010, the loss of several grants, and the District Advisory Council disallowing the House2House fee has forced your health department to make major reductions in both personnel and services in order to balance the budget for this year, and plan for the future.

This coming year, several programs are eliminated along with the personnel who worked in these areas. There will be no tobacco prevention education due to the lack of grant funding. There will be no household aerobic sewage system inspections of existing systems due to the District Advisory Council not approving the fee for this program. Because we had to lay off environmental staff, there will be longer response times for investigating nuisance complaints.

On the positive side, the H1N1 response has given our residents a better idea of just how valuable our health department can be – the benefits of providing instant response in a health disaster cannot be overemphasized. We hear every day how thankful our residents are that we have provided free of charge H1N1 vaccinations to all who want them.

One more huge positive is our Fairfield Community Health Center, which now has full Federally Qualified Health Status. This means the health center can grow to meet the needs of those in our community who need medical care close to home and can’t afford it.

Also, I believe we have learned how to work more effectively with our District Advisory Council. The process we went through developing a proposal for the House2House program, though it failed to win majority support, was a cooperative partnership that I think is in the best interest of the health of our county residents.

With the funds we have, our extremely professional and dedicated staff continues to do the best they can to protect the health of our county residents. It’s a huge challenge and I’m thankful for each of them.  Unfortunately, if we continue to experience further losses in revenue or significant increases in expenses, there could be more cuts in services and associated personnel.

As residents in Fairfield County, I challenge each of you to learn more about your health department by checking out the website, www.myfdh.org. Take a tour by calling 653-4489 ext. 151 to arrange a visit and to meet some of the staff. Attend a board meeting. They are held the second Thursday of each month –
generally at Fairfield Medical Center at 6 pm.

Finally, when you see a health department staff person out doing a service in the community, you’ll know a little better just how much that person does to help us all live a more healthy life here in Fairfield County.

Frank Hirsch
Health Commissioner
740-653-4489