Oakland County approves reassignment of Children’s Village medical services to health department amid union and staffing concerns

Oakland County commissioners voted to reassign Children’s Village medical clinic operations from the Department of Public Services to the Health and Human Services Department, approving a staffing plan that would delete 18 positions and create 21 new positions under the health department.

The reassignment, approved by a committee vote on the item presented March 11, will move medical oversight of the county’s Children’s Village residential program into the county health department, with internal posting of the new health-department positions and an expected internal hiring period targeted for May 1 and a sunset date of July 1 for the old positions.

County officials and health department leaders said the change responds to clinical concerns raised about Children’s Village over the past year, the nonrenewal of an outside contractor contract, and a desire to create a continuous clinical structure under health-department leadership. Barb Henke, director of public services, said a clinical supervisor was dismissed and that several standard operating procedures were rewritten after a health-department clinical review. “We learned that Honor Community Health was going to not renew their contract with us,” Henke said, and county staff saw the reassignment as a way to secure clinical continuity.

Why it matters

Supporters told commissioners the move would place children served by Children’s Village within a continuous public-health clinical infrastructure, increase access to training, and reduce county liability tied to out-of-date procedures. Opponents — including multiple current Children’s Village nurses, union representatives and several commissioners — said the county’s approach risks unnecessarily displacing experienced staff who already meet licensure requirements and provide continuity of care to a high-acuity population.

What the plan would do

Barb Henke said the…