Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mary Greeley reports service-area change, staffing strain and state public-health realignment plans
Summary
Mary Greeley Home Health & Hospice reported narrowing its service area to six counties, ongoing staffing shortages, expansion of population-based public‑health work funded by asset dollars, and potential state-level realignment of public‑health funding to district leads.
Eric Hadelman, director of Mary Greeley Home Health, Hospice and Story County Public Health, told the Story County Board of Supervisors on April 22 that the health system narrowed its home health and hospice service area to six counties and is preparing for state-level changes to public‑health funding.
Hadelman said the service-area change was prompted by travel and safety concerns for staff and by problems ensuring timely care. “We made the decision to go to a 6 county area instead of the 50 mile radius. So right now we service, Story, Polk, Marshall, Boone, Hamilton, Harton Counties,” Hadelman said. He told the board the shift has worked well and that other agencies in the region can cover care needs the hospital is no longer serving.
The report outlined core programs funded in part by “asset” dollars for Story County residents, including skilled nursing in the home, therapy services, homemaker and personal-care services on a sliding fee scale, transitional surgical care to reduce readmissions, and hospice care including the Israel Family Hospice House. Hadelman said the department served 352 Story County residents with skilled and homemaker services in the past year and that an annual homemaker survey showed 94 percent of respondents said they could not remain at home without those services.
Hadelman described a statewide shift in how the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are planning to distribute funds. He said the state plans to set priorities and route funding through a district lead that could be a public-health agency, hospital, or private entity; that district lead would then allocate funding to local public-health programs. Hadelman said that legislative changes to enact the funding structure are not expected before fiscal 2027 and that planning and public forums are under way.
He also told the board that Story County Public Health continues clinics for immunizations and senior health, does disease investigation and surveillance, and participates in multi‑county emergency preparedness. Hadelman said staff worked with Story County emergency management to distribute “stop the bleed” kits to schools and school buses. On staffing, he said the home health department had been short several nurses and aides due to retirements and turnover and was “just starting to get back up” toward target staffing levels.
The board asked how the state changes would affect local emergency-management relationships and whether grants would still cover individual services; Hadelman said current HHS materials indicate local providers can remain hospital‑based and that population‑based grants will cover community education while asset funding supports individualized services such as homemaker and skilled nursing visits.
Hadelman also noted the department is exploring a virtual platform using the hospital MyChart system to provide transitional-care visits by videoconference. He said hospice bereavement and caregiver supports continue and community partnerships — including volunteer master gardeners — support programming at the Israel Family Hospice House.
The presentation was informational; the board did not take formal action on the report.
