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Riley County Health Department outlines staffing, budget and electronic-records plans; child-care licensing reports regulatory changes
Summary
The county health director reported ongoing onboarding, plans to fill a preparedness coordinator vacancy, a new nurse hire, an electronic health-record replacement and forthcoming departmental budgets; child-care licensing reported regulatory changes from KDHE, service to five counties and a facility count of 251.
Diane Creek, Riley County health department director, briefed the commission on Feb. 13 about department onboarding, partnerships and operational priorities, and Heather Ritchie, child-care licensing supervisor, provided the annual licensing update.
Creek said she began in the director role on Dec. 9 and has met with department supervisors, county HR and finance staff, and community partners. She said the department hired a clinic nurse who will start next Tuesday and that she expects clinic staffing to be largely complete after that hire. Creek said the department is preparing to request authority to hire a public-health emergency-preparedness (FEP) coordinator to restore local responsibility for public-health emergency preparedness work; county staff previously supported that function during the department's transition.
Creek said staff are evaluating a new electronic health-record system because the current vendor has limited support among peer departments. She also said department budgets will be presented to the commission on March 6 by budget staff and that county planning for a space-needs assessment is underway to evaluate possible consolidation of health programs into one facility.
Heather Ritchie reported that Riley County's child-care licensing unit serves five counties (Riley, Geary, Clay, Dickinson and Pottawatomie). She said the office oversees 251 licensed facilities and that KDHE regulations updated in August led to changes, including a consolidation of group-home categories into family child-care homes, revised training and capacity rules, and a new health-status form for providers. Ritchie said the unit completed multiple trainings on the new regulations, provided orientations and continues to offer fingerprinting services for providers.
Ritchie reported 50 complaints in the prior year and 12 complaints year-to-date; she described coordination with law enforcement and Department for Children and Families in complaint work and said local law-enforcement leaders expressed willingness to assist when inspectors face safety concerns.
Both department leaders said outreach into rural areas and partnerships with schools, K-State and mental-health providers are priorities for expanding service access.
