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Riley County health director outlines priorities; child-care licensing supervisor reports 251 facilities across five counties
Summary
Health director Diane Creek described onboarding, emergency-preparedness and electronic health-record work; child-care licensing supervisor Heather Ritchie reported 251 licensed facilities across five counties, 50 complaints last year and regulation changes implemented in August.
Diane Creek, Riley County health department director, briefed commissioners on Feb. 13 about her onboarding since starting Dec. 9, emergency-preparedness coordination, staffing and upcoming budget work.
Creek said she met with department heads, toured the county with a commissioner, started weekly supervision meetings with six program supervisors, and is coordinating with Human Resources and finance. She said the county's public-health emergency-preparedness function had been managed during a transition by county emergency-preparedness staff and that she plans to take that responsibility back once a FEMA/EP coordinator position (described as a gap) can be filled. She said the health department recently hired a nurse who is set to begin next Tuesday and that county budgets for health-department programs will be presented to the commission in early March.
Creek added the health department is evaluating electronic-health-record options, that Public Works will start a space-needs assessment to help plan possible consolidation of staff into a single building, and that the department participated in a regional emergency-preparedness exercise with neighboring counties.
Child-care licensing: Heather Ritchie, child-care licensing supervisor, reported the licensing unit covers five counties (Riley, Geary, Clay, Dickinson and Pottawatomie). "We're at 251" licensed facilities, she said. Ritchie reported 50 complaints in the prior year and said the unit had already received 12 complaints in the current year. She summarized regulatory changes effective Aug. 2 that touched roughly 43 regulations, noting the changes included aligning rules across program types, adjustments to staff-qualification barriers, adoption of a provider health-status form and updates to allowable break-time guidance. Ritchie said the department held multiple training sessions and orientations for providers following the regulatory updates and continues to provide fingerprinting and site-approval services.
Why it matters: Health-department staffing, EHR changes and emergency-preparedness capacity affect local public-health services; child-care licensing changes and complaint levels affect families, providers and enforcement workload across multiple counties.
