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Geary County health director reports delayed KDHE reimbursements, low STI and respiratory trends and new OPUS follow-up plan
Summary
Geary County Health Director Charles Martinez reported almost a year of delays accessing a public-health infrastructure grant through KDHE, described declining STI rates, a modest rise in influenza A and one active TB case, and outlined expansion of the OPUS outreach program to improve care transitions for behavioral-health patients.
Charles Martinez, director of the Geary County Health Department, briefed the commission as the Board of Health and described an ongoing access problem that is blocking grant reimbursement. "KDHE emailed the grant manager and said it's in the grant manager's inbox. They need to go through, click a button, and then we'll have access to it," Martinez said, noting delays that have persisted since April and that the system problem has prevented the county from completing reimbursement documentation.
Martinez provided disease surveillance numbers for the county: a reported 6% drop in sexually transmitted infection rates compared with the previous year, acute respiratory emergency-room encounters at about 18.5% (including COVID, RSV and influenza), and influenza A at 5.9% for the current reporting period. He reported one active tuberculosis case, eight chlamydia cases and one syphilis case in the latest sensitive-disease report.
On behavioral health, Martinez said the OPUS outreach and prevention program will be expanded to improve transitions after a patient is transported to Topeka for care and returned to local treatment. The county will assign case managers to follow up after discharge — checking housing, insurance and connection to services — with the goal of improving behavioral-health metrics from a self-assessed "C+" to a higher grade.
Martinez also described public-safety and prevention programs such as Safe Kids (car seats, smoke detector distribution and a planned bike-helmet rodeo) and explained that some program operations will be expanded in the coming months. He told the commission he would forward written correspondence about the KDHE reimbursement issue so staff and legislators can assist in resolving the access problem.
The Board of Health hearing captured the department’s request for clearer and more timely state reimbursements and outlined near-term program and outreach steps; no formal action was taken beyond accepting the update and asking staff to forward grant correspondence to county leadership and legislators.
