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Home My WebLink About201217 - Minutes, Community Health Adv.Washington County Community Health Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes December 17, 2020 Opening This meeting of the Washington County Community Health Advisory Committee was called to order at 7:30am by Douglas Spotts, MD, Chair, via virtual meeting. Present Earl Stoner, Jennifer Foltz, Heidi Kendall, Rich Eichelberger, Rob Ferree, Cyndi Powell, Douglas Spotts, MD, Commissioner Randall Wagner, Alien Twigg, Allison Tages, DDS, and Peggy Pugh. Old Business ® Approval of Meeting Minutes from November 19, 2020. Rob Ferree made the motion to approve as presented, Peggy Pugh seconded. All voting in favor, minutes approved. ® COVID-19 Update provided by Earl Stoner o Earl reviewed status of COVID in Washington County related to number of cases, positivity rate, case rate, hospitalizations and deaths. All numbers are significantly worse than a month ago and we have some of the worse numbers in the state. o Provided information on vaccine delivery and distribution plans. All vaccine administration will go through Meritus. Pfizer's vaccine is harder to handle and store, so they are trying to send this vaccine to more metropolitan areas/cities who are better equipped to handle it and rural areas will rely more heavily on Moderna vaccine. o The situation is changing day by day. o Douglas Spotts talked about testing procedures through Meritus, IV infusion therapy of antibodies to treat persons with COVID who are high risk to try to keep them out of the hospital, 3 Seasonal Infected Clinics (SIC) throughout the county to provide a safe place to evaluate and treat persons showing COVID like symptoms. Helps prevent the spread and keep numbers down going through the ER/Urgent Care/Hospital system. New Business • Round Robin Updates: o Heidi — very busy in behavioral health, improved IT infrastructure increasing virtual access for patients. Facing many challenges getting/staying in front of people and getting them the care they need. o Allen — agreed with much of Heidi discussed related to behavioral health. Discussed substance abuse cases, overdoses and difficulties related to Emergency Petition process. o Rob -- commercial busines and restaurant tenants are having a hard time meeting rent and they're all doing what they can to try to keep them in business. o Rich — County staff going back to working from home more or a hybrid model because of a small outbreak/exposures among staff members. o Jen — works for a medical software company with local office in Frederick. They have been supporting the electronic consent process for some of the larger vaccine trials. Trying to stay positive and spread positivity as much as possible. o Peggy — since going back to virtual learning, WCPS has seen a significant decrease in attendance and engagement. They are investigating and hosting listening sessions to find out why this is happening and how they can work with local community partners to address the reasons/barriers to virtual learning. She also discussed routine vaccinations. At the beginning of the school year —859 students needed regular vaccinations and they've gotten that number down to —247. o Allison — dental practice is very busy. During the course of the pandemic, they've improved their PPE and air filtration to make it safe for staff and patients. Their mobile dental unit has faced challenges especially serving children. They used to go to the schools and easily pull students from classes for their appointments, but now they're going to public places and having a lower turnout of people keeping their appointments. Peggy suggested Allison and her team look at the WCPS meal stations throughout the county and link up with those. She can help give Allison some data to prioritize the sites with the highest turnout. o Randy — thanked everyone who has been working on the front lines of COVID. He really feels like the County has responded well. He reported the commissioners voted to allow committee members to either live or work in Washington County. Rob Ferree and Cyndi Powell have been approved for a term renewal. Allen Twigg and Allison Tages have been approved. The only vacancy that is left to fill is from the veterinary field. Outlook • January meeting, Heidi and Allen Twigg will work on a presentation on behavioral health and substance abuse. • Future potential topics: o Health Department perspective on water/sewer quality o Dental/oral health effect on general health outcomes Meeting Adjourned at 8:30am with "Three Good Things". Next Meeting G Thursday, January 21, 2021 from 7:30am-8:30am — Virtual Meeting Minutes Submitted by: Approved by: