Public health workers need county’s support

We recently read articles in both the Daily Inter Lake and Flathead Beacon about the Flathead City-County Health Department (FCCHD), the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic activities and interactions with our elected Flathead County Commissioners. We are disappointed, to say the least, over the lack of actions to come to the aid of our Health Department exempt workers.

According to the articles, the commissioners had been asked to authorize overtime pay for exempt (non-hourly) employees who have been working 70-plus hours per week since March and are unable to take their earned compensatory time. This request was denied by Commissioners Phil Mitchell and Randy Brodehl. Pam Holmquist was absent from the meeting. The Health Department cited that this action would not violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, and similar overtime pay was supported in other jurisdictions and approved by the Montana Association of Counties (MACO) and that the county had approved a similar proposal for emergency responders during a recent wildfire season.

It seems like a reasonable request that should be honored for this department as well as for other county departments when emergency needs arise. We are in unprecedented times, so let us use unprecedented solutions.

Back in the late 1988-89s, our Health Department dealt with a measles epidemic. We dealt with this outbreak from September 1988 to February 1989. The big difference from today’s pandemic was that we knew the mode of transmission, length of incubation, symptoms, and length of communicability, and we had an effective vaccine. Yes, we were also working long hours and we also made some unpopular decisions such as closing down some sports events; but we had the full support of the Board of Health and the Flathead County Commissioners. A big difference from what is happening today.

Every action taken by public health is based on prevention. What can we do to prevent further exposure, disease, hardships, illness and death from COVID 19? One of the commissioners said that the Health Department should just hire more people to take care of the workload. You can hire temp workers to do some of the contact tracing, but it is the exempt employees who are going to train, supervise, monitor and take ultimate responsibility for their actions. The exempt employees have years of public health experience and are not in this position because of the money or glory. They are public health professionals who live and abide by the department mission statement: Providing quality public health services to ensure the conditions for a healthy community.

They should have the support, especially from our elected officials. We should and can do better to support our public health workers.

Boni Stout, RN, MPH, FCCHD retiree 35 years; Alice Dall, Financial Administrator, FCCHD retiree 37 years; Linda Bodick, LPN, Disease Intervention Specialist, FCCHD retiree 35 years; Sheila Shapiro WHCNP, APRN, FCCHD retiree 25 years; Dan Dickman RN, BSN, FCCHD retiree 30 years; Elaine Sedlack RN, BSN, FCCHD retiree 22 years; Wendy Doely, BS, Community Health Education, FCCHD retiree 33 years