Board of Health Minutes 03-16-1994 SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE SAINT PAUL BOARD OF HEALTH
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1994
Room 330 City Hall and Court House
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA
The meeting was called to order by Board President Thune at 6:35.p.m.
Present - 6- Blakey, Grimm, Harris, Megard, Rettman, Thune
Absent - 1 - Guerin
1. Resolution - 94-314 - approving annual City signatures on documents and
contracts with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).
This resolution designates Katherine Cairns as the person authorized to sign
documents on the Board of Health's behalf for certain documents and Diane
Holmgren for certain documents.
Councilmember Megard moved approval.
Adopted Yeas - 6 Nays - 0
2. Resolution - 94-315 - approving City signatures on a contract with MDH to
accept funding for Hepatitis B services.
Councilmember Megard moved approval.
Adopted Yeas - 6 Nays - 0
3. Resolution - 94-316 - approving City signatures on a contract with MDH to
accept funding for development of a model provider-based immunization registry.
Councilmember Megard moved approval.
Adopted Yeas - 6 Nays - 0
4. Resolution - 94-317 - approving City signatures on a contract with MDH to
accept funding for maintaining a community chronic disease coalition.
Councilmember Megard moved approval.
Adopted Yeas - 6 Nays - 0
5. Saint Paul-Ramsey County Community Health Services Advisory Committee Update
• Health Care Reform
Katherine Cairns, Public Health Director, provided background information on the
Board of Health. She stated that the Board of Health is included in Minnesota State
Statutes, Chapter 145A, where every community health board designates its board.
In St. Paul, the St. Paul City Council is designated as the Board of Health. Public
health functions in St. Paul were in existence in 1858.
The resolutions which were adopted (Items 1-4) are requirements of state and
federal government. When contracts or money are coming from the federal or state
level to provide services in St. Paul, the Board of Health must approve the receipt
of those funds. Ms. Cairns noted that there is a diversified funding base for St. Paul
March 16, 1994
Public Health with decreasing reliance on the property tax base and increasing
reliance on federal, state, and private sources.
Ms. Gairns introduced Bruce Larson, Chair of the St. Paul-Ramsey County
Community Health Services Advisory Committee. This committee is also included
under the Statute for advice to the Board of Health.
Mr. Larson provided a briefing on the working papers from the Citizens Advisory
Committee. This information will be passed on to the Legislative Delegation for
their consideration along with the Minnesota Health Care Reform Legislation. As
citizens, Mr. Larson said the committee has some simple facts about how the Board
of Health exercises stewardship over some very valuable public health assets in the
city. This was the motivation behind the three resolutions. One of these assets is the
community clinics. If the clinics do not have contracts with the designated payor
sources, there is a concern that they may cease to eausts. There must be a contract
and there must be a source of payment. They are very concerned that the advisory
bodies and citizen constituencies may become public relations vehicles where some
HMOs or other entities will control who sits at the table and what services will be
provided. He stressed the importance of "real people" sitting on the boards and that
the concerns of individuals, particularly in the under-served communities, surface and
that the needs of these individuals are not overlooked.
Mr. Larson stated that it does not do much good to have health reform if there is no
way of knowing if money is being saved and whether or not the citizens are being
short-changed. They are attempting to get a handle on some basic benchmarks that
have been developed in the public health culture. It is hoped that the groups
managing the money and deploying the services will adopt them.
• Ad-Hoc Smoking Committee
Kent Reese, Chair of the Environmental Health Subcommittee, discussed issues
related to the Ad Hoc Smoking Committee. He stated that the scope of smoking
encompasses more than just environment; it also involves personal and community
health which is how the ad hoc committee came about. Discussion started out
originally from talking about a total ban on smoking in all public areas and is now
focused more closely on looking at only restaurants.
A draft resolution was presented to the Committee basically making a switch in the
percentage of seating in restaurants from the current 30/70 to 70/30. Discussions
have been held with the Minnesota Restaurant Association, and they have been
communicating with their members. A meeting is upcoming with the Restaurant
Association for further discussion regarding this issue. Mr. Reese said he has met
with staff from the Minnesota Department of Health and they aze in support of this
change.
Councilmember Blakey asked about smoking statistics for young people.
Mr. Reese responded that the committee has not focused on this issue but stated
there are some statistics which indicate an up and down fluctuation of minors
smoking.
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March 16, 1994
Councilmember Megard commented that the issue of improving the health of St.
Paul citizens is one that has frequently come before the Council. One concem is
licensed vendors selling tobacco products to minors. She questioned whether the Ad-
Hoc Smoking Committee has addressed this issue to which Mr. Reese replied "no".
Megard asked that the Committee address this problem in their discussion and
possibly come up with a policy recommendation at some time.
Councilmember Rettman stated that the City does have a matrix on selling to minors
which includes criteria and penalties of which the committee should be aware.
6. Managed Care Update
Ms. Cairns stated that St. Paul Public Health is the contract provider for managed
care services to the medical assistance population in St. Paul. In addition, there are
many other health care organizations that are billed by the Health Department for
health services that are provided.
7. Funding and Service Profiles
Ms. Cairns reviewed graphs that were provided on Financing for St. Paul Public
Health, Special Fund Revenue, Public Health Staffing, Trends in Housing Code
Complaint and Response Data, Trends in Housing Code Enforcement, Clients/Visits
for Medical and Dental; WIC; and Total Visits.
Councilmember Harris asked about consolidation of Public Health with Ramsey
County.
Bruce Larson said that the Committee will continue to look at possible merger. He
stated that if this was an easy task to undertake, he felt merger would have taken
place many years ago. He said they will address which options appear to have the
best interests of the citizens of St. Paul.
Councilmember Harris suggested they might want to identify just one element such
as a particular service delivery item that may be delivered more efficiently and serve
the public better if they were merged.
Councilmember Rettman suggested this could be discussed further at the next Board
of Health meeting.
8. C�zstomer Service Initiative
• Housing Services
Diane Holmgren, Public Health, briefed the Board on some of the customer service
initiatives they have been undertaking. A telephone survey is planned for this spring
with individuals who have been involved in the housing complaint areas to determine
the levels of satisfaction with responding to complaints and where improvements can
be made.
• Clinic User Services
The spring quarter survey has been completed. There were 250 respondents which
is about 20% of the clients that visit the Public Health Center during any given week.
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Questions asked in the survey included the level of satisfaction with the services, why
people use the Public Health facility, what other resources they use for health care,
and the type of insurance they have.
• Health Information/Education
Public Health conducts many presentations in the community on a variety of health
issues, Ms. Holmgren stated. Public Health will begin to send survey cards to people
to seek input on their satisfaction with the programs.
The Public Health Center answers approximately 700 calls per day from the public.
Twenty-six percent of the ca11s received are refened to another service.
Ms. Cairns concluded the meeting by saying that she is willing to address District
Councils and neighborhood groups on health issues.
D T 7: 2 P.M.
oard Presi nt, avid Thune
ATTEST:
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Minutes approved by Board of Health
Nancy An on � �
Assistant ouncil Secretary
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