Grant County Health District feels financial strain

Stumbling blocks in the city's purchase of the Big Mountain Tire store downtown may be closer to resolution

Costs incurred from outbreaks, future health risks taking their toll

GRANT COUNTY — Six months into the 2005 fiscal year, the Grant County Health District is being confronted with a budget that has taken many hits due to unexpected costs.

A large part of those costs stem from responding to a flu outbreak in January at the Columbia Basin Job Corps. At least five students were diagnosed with Influenza A and more than 70 other students exhibited flu-like symptoms and were treated by health district staff. The health district also responded to at least three separate cases of meningitis, and reports of Hepatitis A and tuberculosis.

While outbreaks of these diseases are not at all uncommon, Peggy Grigg, director of personal health services with GCHD, said the increase in outbreaks could be due in part from seeing a higher number of immigrant populations who have come from areas with higher exposure to certain illnesses.

Grigg pointed out that continually improving communication between the health district and health care providers in the county with regards to testing and diagnosis of illnesses can help alleviate the spread and costs of outbreaks.

In response to those unexpected costs, the health district is planning for the possibility of seeing an increase in those expenses in the future.

Part of that planning includes a new vaccine recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising that children between the ages of 11 and 12 receive a meningoccocal vaccine.

The health district is planning to purchase doses of the vaccine later this year.

"It's been shown so effective that CDC felt it's something we need to reintroduce," said Alexander Brzezny, health officer with GCHD at a meeting of the Board of Health last week.

The possibility of the avian influenza spreading into an outbreak in the United States and other countries is another concern.

According to information from the CDC, the risk for outbreak of avian influenza in the United States is low at this time, with reported cases in humans found in New York in 2003 and Canada last year.

Various strains of avian influenza in birds within the U.S. have also been reported.

Last week, Brzezny said the next step for the health district in dealing with that concern will be to purchase more materials, such as face masks, in the event of an avian influenza outbreak.

In an effort to pay for some of these costs, Brzezny said the health district will be contacting Medicaid representatives about any monies available.

Despite the unexpected costs, the health district is confident it will end 2005 with a positive fund balance, Grigg said.

That is in part due to an agreement by several municipalities within the county that have agreed to contribute $1 per resident in incorporated Grant County to help fund public health. Moses Lake contributes to this funding.

However, some of those cities and towns have only agreed to make that contribution for one year.

Since the inception of the agreement in 2004, the health district has budgeted to receive $67,000 from the county's 14 cities and towns and another $37,000 from the county to contribute $1 for those in unincorporated Grant County.

The proposal to ask the county's 14 cities and towns to contribute $1 per resident came in 2004 after the county notified the health district it would not be able to allocate as much money as it had in the past from its budget to the health district.

To make up for the costs, Grigg said the health district has tried to provide on-site staff training rather than paying for training costs outside of the county. They are also finding specific needs for grant monies which the district has received, at least $25,000 for environmental health, computer training and maternal child health funding for 2005.

"That will be the biggest factor that will impact us in '06," Grigg said of the cities' and county's contributions as well as grant monies.

A public hearing will be held July 13 at 7 p.m. in the Public Works building in Ephrata regarding the health district budget.