Will County Board Public Health & Safety Committee met July 14.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Speaker Cowan led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Rachel Ventura called the meeting to order at 11:12 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Rachel Ventura | Chair | Present | |
| Meta Mueller | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Mica Freeman | Member | Present | |
| Debbie Kraulidis | Member | Present | |
| Raquel M. Mitchell | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Member | Present |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: K. Meyers.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Public Health & Safety Committee - Regular Meeting - Jun 2, 2021 11:00 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Meta Mueller, Vice Chair SECONDER: Debbie Kraulidis, Member AYES: Ventura, Mueller, Freeman, Kraulidis, Mitchell, Parker, Tyson |
1. Sunny Hill Nursing Home Updates - May 2021
(Sunny Hill Nursing Home Updates - May 2021)
2. Board of Health Approved COVID-19 Response Committee Meeting Minutes, May 12, 2021
(Susan Olenek)
3. Board of Health Approved May 19, 2021 Minutes
(Susan Olenek)
VI. OLD BUSINESS
1. Monthly Update from Will County Health Dept.
(Sue Olenek)
Ms. Olenek reviewed the PowerPoint presentation attached to the agenda.
Ms. Freeman stated someone asked me about Governor Pritzker’s lottery; does the County provide the information for the lottery?
Ms. Olenek replied yes, they get their information from the same database we get our information from. The State of Illinois operates an I-Care database, which has information for everybody who has been vaccinated.
Ms. Freeman asked would it matter if they received their vaccine at the County or CVS.
Ms. Olenek replied no matter where they received their vaccine, it is entered into the same database. Anyone who received a COVID-19 vaccine from an Illinois provider would be in that database and that is where they are getting the information from.
Ms. Freeman stated Plainfield High School has a clinic date set up. Have other high schools shown an interest?
Ms. Olenek replied I am not involved with that on a daily basis. I can check and get back to you.
Ms. Freeman stated this is an opportune time with everyone needing physicals before they go back to school.
Ms. Olenek stated I will send that information to County Board staff and they can get it out to everyone.
Mrs. Ogalla stated you mentioned closing the call center and hiring staff to do that in-house. Do you know how many people you will need?
Ms. Olenek replied for 400 to 500 calls per week, probably two. Mrs. Ogalla asked will they be paid through CARES money.
Ms. Olenek replied yes.
Mrs. Ogalla asked how long we will keep the marketing firm working on our behalf. I like the different ideas you are doing for outreach for school programs.
Ms. Olenek respond they were hired through the end of August. I would like to keep them on for this purpose and for marketing and advertising our two new behavioral health programs. We thought it was necessary to start a substance use treatment program. There has been anecdotal and documented information regarding the increase in mental and behavioral health issues because of COVID. I would like to use the expertise of The FOURCE to get information out about the program and our upcoming 24/7 365 local crisis response program that will be enhanced. I will be making a request for additional funds or we can tap into the $3 million the County Board provided to us, depending on how long that takes us. I made a request for ARPA funds to continue to use The FOURCE for on-going COVID issues. Within the next two or three months, we are most likely going to get full FDA approval for the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines, or at least Pfizer. With full FDA approval, a large number of people will feel it is safe and they will want the vaccine. I don’t know how this is going to go, but we will need to continue getting out the information we have.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I saw the commercial you mentioned on Facebook. A lot of people have told me they will get vaccinated after it gets FDA approval. Do we have any information about long-haulers in Will County? I have been approached by people who have a long, continuing need for tests, because of the COVID impact.
Ms. Olenek replied we do not. I am sure the state is generating that. You are right, it is an on-going problem. There are many people who still feel effects from COVID, effects that were not initially part of their symptoms. It is a real thing and it is happening. I can find out from IDPH if they have any data on that.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I am hoping we could use some of the ARP money to put together a program to help with some of those costs. These funds are available because of COVID and I would like to help people with the costs of repeated tests.
Ms. Olenek stated I have received some e-mails from individuals requesting information about long-haulers. A peer at a local Health Department was asking what is happening in our counties with these patients being referred to a specialist. In the future, there might be some type of sub-specialty, but our medical advisor said, depending on the symptoms the long-hauler is experiencing, they find it most effective to refer the patient to a specialist for whatever the problem is. As an example, if they are experiencing long-term lung issues, they would be sent to a pulmonologist. If they are experiencing an orthopedic issue, they would send them to orthopedic doctor.
Speaker Cowan asked for an update on the spending of the CARES Act money that we allocated to the Health Department. Board Members might appreciate a rundown of what it was spent on. We are trying to wrap the CARES fund up, so knowing where we are would be good.
Ms. Olenek indicated she would do that and asked would you like me to prepare that for an upcoming Committee meeting? How would you like me to present that?
Ms. Ventura asked how quickly you can get it. We could e-mail to everyone and you could mention it at the Board meeting tomorrow. If that is too fast, we could pick a different date for you to present that.
Ms. Olenek replied I could have it for tomorrow. Is it on the agenda?
Ms. Ventura replied no, but we could make mention of where we are with the CARES money during the Finance portion.
Speaker Cowan added we could also do it during public comment or we could add this to either the Finance Committee or the first Executive Committee meeting in August.
Ms. Olenek replied I can do whatever is your preference.
Speaker Cowan stated let’s shoot for August and we can put it on an agenda. Ms. Ventura and I will talk about whether it is best in this Committee or at Finance or Executive.
Mrs. Traynere stated I was told there was only one census track in County Board District #4 and DuPage Township in general where the number of vaccinations was a little low. Is there a mobile vaccine unit that would be available, if we did some legwork with fliers or knocking on doors to make them aware of a day vaccines would be available? Is there a mobile unit or do we have to get a building?
Ms. Olenek replied we do popups inside or outside. As long as it is not raining or 100 degrees outside, we can make that happen.
Mrs. Traynere stated Bolingbrook High School is in that census track. I will be in touch with you off-line to see what we might do. We need to do something in that neighborhood to get people on the bandwagon.
Ms. Olenek stated we have two different avenues to look at our data; we have the GIS data and we also have a new dashboard the IDPH is rolling out. Those two dashboards look at where vaccines have been provide and we are able to pinpoint by census tracks and zip codes and we can zoom in to look at streets where we need outreach for vaccines. Those are the areas where our Vaccine Director, Equity Manager, Health Navigators and the CBO’s will be concentrating on.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked for the job description of the Health Navigator? Ms. Olenek indicated she would provide the information.
Ms. Ventura stated thank you for the presentation and all of the data. One of the things we heard over and over at NACo was we need more data driven and evidence based everything. Do you have an overall percentage for the people vaccinated in Will County? Do you only have a breakdown by the age categories? If you don’t have the information now, could you e-mail it to me? I was going to put it on my Facebook page.
Ms. Olenek asked are you looking for the total administered doses.
Ms. Ventura replied I am looking for the percentage of people who received at least one vaccine dose. I heard, in the State of Illinois, 70% of the people have received one dose. I was looking for an overall percentage for Will County. As we move away from the mass vaccination sites, it is important to move into more one-on-one, individual sites. As you are hiring Health Navigators, are we planning a door-to-door campaign? Are we looking at certain zip codes or areas identified as having a greater disparity of vaccines?
Ms. Olenek responded yes. That is the data we are looking at. It is not the availability of vaccines, it is those people who are hesitant to take the vaccine that we are looking at. I don’t know if we will do door-to-door. It will be up to the Equity Manager and her Health Navigators with input from the CBOs, to let us know if they think that is an effective way to do it. That is not off the table; I just don’t know if that is going to be one of ways we do it.
Ms. Ventura stated with the feedback we are getting through the surveys, town halls and listening sessions, have we identified solutions or different types of education or information handouts that need to be created, based on the hesitancy?
Ms. Olenek replied that is what the Equity Manager is working on. We have had two town hall meetings and we are scheduling more for this month. The Equity Manager will be holding stakeholder meetings. Those are people within the communities, residents, business owners and faith leaders, who come together and provide us with on-going feedback and strategies on how to continue to do outreach to people who are hesitant.
Ms. Ventura stated I heard at NACo, several counties were doing what we are doing; moving away from mass vaccination sites and going to door-to-door or community events. I am glad we are doing that and following the feedback of those in the community. How are the CBOs being selected? Are we setting expectations of what they are supposed to do with the money or are they providing us with those plans?
Ms. Olenek responded on the Notice of Funding Opportunity, we provided what they are required to do and what the benchmarks are; they need to tell us how they are going to meet those benchmarks. That is part of the review process. The review process will take place with our COVID team and there will be a final review by Bronner to make sure everything is looked at by a third party. They will receive half of the funding at the beginning of the project. They will need to provide quarterly reports to the Equity Manager to ensure they are meeting the benchmarks and making sure they are being productive with the money. At the end of the project they receive the additional 50%.
Ms. Ventura asked who is on your COVID team.
Ms. Olenek replied there are 12 people on the COVID team that will be part of this.
Ms. Ventura stated I would like to see us continue to use The FOURCE. I look forward to proposals as to how we can best utilize them. We have a lot of great programming at the Health Department, but if people don’t know how to utilize the services or whether they are eligible for them, then it as though we don’t have them. We want to make sure that people are utilizing those programs to get the help they need. Has The FOURCE given any reports or feedback on what has worked most effectively with their outreach? What has not worked? What was the ROI and what should we shy away from in the future?
Ms. Olenek replied I have those reports. Two weeks ago, The FOURCE provided us with a very robust PowerPoint presentation that told us exactly what is working, what is not working and helped us look at how effective some parts of the campaign have been and where we are to put dollars moving forward. They did not provide us with the full PowerPoint presentation, but they gave Ms. Jackson a couple of slides that summed up the presentation.
Ms. Ventura stated I think Board Members would find that information interesting, especially if we are going to appropriate more dollars to advertising and marketing. You talked about the free school physicals; which schools are participating?
Ms. Olenek replied only our Community Health Center is providing free physicals for patients that come in for the COVID vaccine.
Ms. Ventura asked do you know if the local schools are providing vaccines before kids go back to school.
Ms. Olenek responded it is up to the schools. We have been in contact with the ROE and we have reached out to all of the schools to let them know we are here if they want to do a clinic or if they need the vaccine.
Ms. Ventura stated once school starts, it might be helpful to have a flyer go home with every student, in both English and Spanish, with the vaccination opportunities, so hopefully, parents will get the information. Maybe that is something we could offer. If there are other things the Health Department is doing, if you e-mail the County Board Members, we could send the information to our network of followers and put it on our social media accounts. Please let us know when you are hiring for positions, because we can help push that out as well.
Ms. Olenek stated all of our open positions are on our website. We currently have 25 open positions. We need COVID Health Navigators, but we also need mental health counselors, reimbursement specialists; we need a lot of staff. It is on our website and if anyone is looking for a position, we would love for them to apply.
Ms. Ventura stated as a County Board Member, there is a lot of stuff we are constantly looking at and we don’t go out looking for it, but we would love to share it. If there are things you need help getting to the public, please let us know and we would be happy to do that. It also helps keep us informed as well.
Ms. Tyson stated I am happy to hear the CBOs were finally given a contract to work with the Health Department.
Ms. Olenek stated we have not contracted with anyone yet. The submission date is July 19th, by 5:00 p.m. We will take a couple of weeks to vet them and then we will announce the awards on August 2nd. There is not a long timeframe to do this. The project period is August 1st through January 31, 2022.
Ms. Ventura asked Ms. Olenek if she had any update about other things happening at the Health Department.
Ms. Olenek replied everything else continues to go. The big push, right now, is trying to get our budget done. We are still waiting for several grant awards from the State, so we don’t know what those revenue numbers are. Ms. Bilotta and I have met with all of our division heads and directors to continue to revise the budget and build the best budget we can. We have a hole we are trying to fill, in terms of balancing the revenue and expenses. We will get it done and we make that work.
Health Department Update July 14, 2021
(Sue Olenek)
2. Opioid Update
(Dr. Kathleen Burke)
Dr. Burke stated the Illinois Prevents Overdoses grant, that I am funded for, renewed for two months, and then for one year, under a different category. Part of the grant included the Rapid Response Team, so this group will continue to be funded. The grant was for $255,350. The Hero Helps program will be October 15th from 8:30 to 12:30, the last hour will be Naloxone training. We are firming up all of the speakers and you will receive more information and an agenda at the next meeting. International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31st. Ms. Kim Baluchi, of New Lenox, created a foundation five years ago, to honor her son who passed from an opioid overdose. She is planning a large event, to thank all of the people who helped in regard to reducing overdose deaths, particularly first responders. We know they do that, but we don’t often call them out. It will be held at the Hickory Creek Church in Frankfort from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on August 31st. It is not an educational event, it is an acknowledgment of the work people do and to acknowledge those folks who have passed. Mr. Perter Palanca from Governor’s State University will be the emcee. We will have a presence there also. No overdose deaths were reported for June, yet. There have been 48 overdose deaths this year. I am pleased that after 20 deaths in April, May had only five. We are not going up, we are coming down. When I compare this April and May to last year, we are equal; this year we had 25 and last year we had 24. Overall for 2021 it looks like we have less deaths, but we are trending the same way. I was worried because there were initial relapse activity, which resulted in quite a few deaths and we are seeing that come down. The reason for those deaths is fentanyl. For those who relapse, meaning they have been in recovery for a while, they go out and buy their drug of choice, which is heroin, but what they are buying is fentanyl. When they use fentanyl, they often overdose and die. We are trying to get the word out that this is not to be messed with. Our Naloxone distribution sites help with that education. In May, we distributed 384 kits at our popups, which are located at the farmers’ markets. In April, we trained 507 people on how to use Naloxone. We had people walking around distributing Naloxone at the Lockport Canal Days. That is very effective and we have been doing that more frequently. Lockport had a peak around that time, of deaths and overdoses, so we are focusing on that community. The distribution sites include our micro-pantries. Our micro-pantries are located throughout Will County; the one in Joliet is the most frequently used. There is controversy around placing Naloxone in a micro-pantry. Naloxone is a medication and Illinois requires a prescription. However, it has no negative effect if used. It strictly blocks opioids in the brain. If someone uses it because of an overdose, it will reverse the effects. If someone uses it because they are having some other overdose reaction, it does not work. If someone uses it thinking they are going to get high, it doesn’t work. If someone uses it accidently, it doesn’t do anything. There are no negative effects. There has been pushback, particularly from the medical side about having this available to people. We do this because often the people who need this the most are homeless or food deprived and they frequent the micro-pantries. We provide information about how and where to get help. We leave cards for people to connect with us and the directions for using Naloxone. People who are using substances are often familiar with how to use it. The State Program Development Officer is very supportive of this strategy, because it reaches so many people. Our most frequently used micro pantry box is at Larkin and McDonough Street. The Easy Auto owner is a partner with us, because that area has a very high rate of folks who are purchasing and using opioids. We have equipped him with a box of 12 kits, because they go through Naloxone so frequently. If other businesses would like to do that, we would be happy to. Our people are out there trying to make connections and trying to help people understand that this is not a dangerous drug, so it can be included in the micro-pantries. We are thankful that this opportunity has come up. We have worked with the Lockport Police Department to roll out a new program, called Naloxone Plus. If there is an overdose in Lockport, the Police Officer will call the two designated Rapid Response individuals who will reach out to the individual for support. The individual has to give permission to the Police that someone can contact them before we reach out to them. We always deliver Naloxone and sometimes it is emotional support or leading them to treatment or support groups. One person has taken advantage of this program so far. We are testing it in this community to see if it can be rolled out into other communities. It is important that we have the Police Department’s support of helping people with a substance use disorder in their community. That will help get more of my people in there to continue their work. Through our Safe Passage Program, we have temporarily placed five people in hotels, who are in need of housing until we can get them into treatment. This program helps people who have overdosed, but did not go to the hospital, to get into treatment. Our Rapid Response person helps them find placement. Usually they don’t have insurance or they have Medicaid and we work with them to get them placed. The problem is it is not a 24-hour placement opportunity. So we have people stay in a hotel, with our support to help them stay not using. There are barriers in getting a person into treatment, when they have to have a medical clearance due to COVID and if they are on any other prescription medications, they have to come in with those. Stepping Stones is working on a way to facilitate that faster, because it end up being a backlog. The interim program has been very helpful.
Ms. Ventura asked could you give us an update on the MAR program. Has there been any movement with our Sheriff? Could this Committee help by passing a Resolution? I am interested in how we can implement this in our jails.
Dr. Burke replied we are meeting and we have a person from the Sheriff’s Office on our team. Well Path does the medical clearance intake when a person comes in. We are trying to figure out what type of behavioral health clearance they have, so we are trying to figure out a process to identify the need for support. Mr. Scott DuBois, from the Specialty Courts, is on the Committee. I sit on the Committee along with someone from Family Guidance, who did the Vivitrol programs at the jail. Someone from the Health Department’s Behavior Health Department is on the Committee, but they are very focused on opening their program. We are moving along. We have the support. We had two webinars to educate us about MAR and about the effectiveness, which was extremely helpful. The feedback we got from the jail participants was they may use it for their staff. We want people to understand that sometimes people have ways of describing addiction and ways describing MAR, but people don’t understand. This was one of the best presentations I have ever seen. I reviewed it with our Recovery Coach program, in order for them to understand, so we get more buy-in. There is a commitment to have three types of MAR from Family Guidance. We will continue to plan the implementation. Well Path is the biggest block, because they are understaffed and they need nurses and nurse’s aide positions filled. There is a huge shortage of nurses because of COVID. Many people retired and they are not interested in going back. She is having trouble filling the positions, so her availability has been challenged. Well Path has implemented this in other jails throughout the country. This is not new; it is just gearing up our folks to be able to support it, given their current staffing. The intent is that the Sheriff will, upon conclusion of our planning, understand what it will take to roll out this type of project and include it in the budget. We are expecting the State to offer us another grant to do that. Tomorrow, we are taking the whole team to tour the jail. They will walk us through the process of someone coming into the jail from start to finish. That will be very informative.
Ms. Ventura stated I will continue to be an advocate for this. I think it is important to get people the treatment they need. If there is anything this Committee can do, please ask. It is great we are doing distribution at festivals and I know there are a lot coming up this summer. I am happy to send you a list of festivals that I know of.
Dr. Burke stated that would be great, because we inform our folks, as we find out. We are all familiar with our local communities, so we would like to know; particularly the areas that are problematic, we want to make sure our people are there.
Ms. Ventura stated you spoke of other businesses that could offer access to this. Have you worked with the pharmacies? You talked about the barricades of needing a prescription, but is that something we are able to do; similar to how we used pharmacies to give people the COVID vaccine. Is that something they might be able to offer?
Dr. Burke replied there are pharmacies in our area that offer Naloxone. You have to ask for it. They are covered under the State’s Public Health Department Prescription Plan. You don’t have to have a prescription, you can just walk in and ask. Walgreens and CVS offer that program and it is available at other pharmacies. Our biggest challenge is the hospital pharmacies, where getting Naloxone in the hands of someone who has overdosed and leaves, is more challenging, based on their relationship with the pharmacies and how they do their med orders. Our Recovery Coaches are back at Silver Cross and they will soon be returning to AMITA. This is where we find out what those barriers are and work with to make sure we can get Naloxone into the hands of people.
Ms. Ventura stated I learned ERA funds could be used to place the homeless. Ms. Sojka, Mr. Palmer and I are having a meeting on Friday. I will send you an invite in case any of that could be helpful to you as well.
Dr. Burke stated I work closely with Ms. Sojka and Ms. McNichol. I was given notice that two of the recovery homes in Joliet and probably more, the City has asked them to stop being a recovery home. The reason is they are not zoned for housing that number of people. They are zoned for only three people of different families and there are 17 people in each of those homes. The owners of those homes are scrambling to figure out where to place these folks when they vacate. They own the homes, they just cannot use them for this purpose. They have five other homes that are not zoned correctly, so they will be vacating all of their homes, eventually. We would very much like to have homes in Joliet and the communities that are accessible to people on low incomes. We want to be careful when we invite groups into our community that think because we have a large number of people who suffer from a substance use disorder that there is a huge market for these homes, because there is not. Silver Oaks opened, promising to help our folks who have Medicaid or no insurance and that did not turn out to be accurate. I have no problem with people needing to break even and to support their services, but I have a problem with them not including anyone from our projects in the conversation.
Ms. Ventura stated we will discuss the zoning issues at the meeting. There are some solutions with the ERA money. We found out at NACo what we could be doing to help move individuals into a different location. Supply is the second side of the coin. Tomorrow at the Board Meeting, we will be voting to move forward with an RFQ, to bring on an expert who can help us with the housing solution proposal. It is not just transitional housing or housing for the homeless that is an issue, but every level of housing in Will County is an issue; we don’t have the supply and that was long before COVID. As people leave the City and flock to the
suburbs, houses are selling in hours and days. That is a testament to the low supply we have for residents who are here and need to change homes or downsize or upsize, we just don’t have the supply. Hopefully, hiring someone will help us navigate this issue. They will determine what that looks like, how we build more supply, the barricades, what are the solutions and where the funding will come from. These things are a slow process, but we are aware and we are trying to move the ball forward. Hopefully that will pass tomorrow and we can see bigger growth in our housing supply.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked what does MAR stand for.
Dr. Burke replied Medical Assisted Recovery. In the past it was called MAT, Medical Assisted Treatment, now it is MAR.
Mrs. Berkowicz stated when someone is giving Naloxone to reverse an overdose, do they require follow-up medical care? If a parent finds their child and administers Naloxone, do they seek medical attention? Are people being given Naloxone and not seeking medical attention?
Dr. Burke replied usually if a parent finds someone, they call 9-1-1; which is how they are trained to use Naloxone. People who overdose, who are frequent flyers, usually that person will refuse to go to the emergency room and they have every right to refuse to go to the ER. Part of that is COVID and the other part is nothing happens in the emergency room. They stabilize them and send them on. It is an expense the person feels they did not need and they leave.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked do you have any information, from the cases you are aware of, that use the Naloxone, where they get the Naloxone from.
Dr. Burke replied I get feedback from the folks we distribute to, the Police Departments and our Rapid Response Teams. If they hear someone we distributed to in our popups used the Naloxone, I put that data into the State database. The IDPH has an opioid database that shows all of the Naloxone distributions. I did not have a report for today on our distribution, because I received an entire year of reports from the City of Joliet. I did not want the number to be misrepresented.
Mrs. Berkowicz asked are you the sole person responsible for providing that information?
Dr. Burke replied I am only responsible for my project. The Fire Departments report to a different database. The hospitals are required to report. The IDPH is working on a strategy to combine all the data points. Our folks have been working on getting that information so we get a sense of the people we don’t see, because they go directly to the ER.
Mrs. Ogalla asked when you do the Naloxone training, is it mostly for someone who cares for someone who is addicted to opioids or is it the person? Do we provide them with a packet of information they can use for help? Have you ever done that at the Will County Fair?
Dr. Burke replied our focus, at the popups, has been to get to the people who use drugs and to neighborhoods we have not been in. It is a combination of the families and the individuals. We give them a box of Naloxone with two doses in it, information on harm reduction, a number to call for help or treatment and any other materials we can put out. We have partnered with vaccine staff to give out Naloxone at the vaccine fairs. It is a combination. I report my information as giving it to active users. Four times a year I do a training for New Lenox through their Healthy Community program. Those folks are either care providers, emergency people or community people, they are not directly attached to users.
3. Monthly Update from Sunny Hill Nursing Home
(Maggie McDowell)
Ms. McDowell read the attached report into the record.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I’m looking forward to the “How’s Mom” app. I think it should be called “How’s Dad”.
Ms. McDowell stated three years ago, this is the brain child of two guys in Indiana. Both of them had their moms at a long term care facility. It started because they would call wanting to know if mom has a temperature today, what was her blood sugar and the process they had to go through to get the basic information, was so lengthy they decided there had to be a simpler way and they came up with this. I take my hat off to them. When COVID broke, they offered the services free for six month to long term care facilities. It is such a great program, so why would anyone want to let it let lapse. It was a good marketing ploy.
Mrs. Ogalla stated it would have been beneficial if we would have had it during COVID. Often, when you call, they are busy so they can’t answer calls or they don’t have the information.
Ms. McDowell added with this app if you want to know how your parent is doing in the middle of the night, you can log on and access the information.
Mrs. Ogalla stated I think that is absolutely fabulous. I am a proponent of getting more of a companion type employees. Could we do that? A companion employee would have a certain number of patients and they could spend more time with them. The Committee that puts together all of the events is not able to engage everybody. I would like to keep pushing that thought. It seems like Sunny Hill has done the best over all the different nursing homes. It shows the great effort of you, as well as of all your staff and how excellent they have done their job. Thank you for that. I look forward to the mom app. It is a fabulous idea and it will be less time consuming for your staff.
Ms. McDowell stated I think this will facilitate better communication and it is going to be readily available for families.
Sunny Hill Monthly Report July 14, 2021
(Maggie McDowell)
VII. OTHER OLD BUSINESS
VIII. NEW BUSINESS
1. Renewing Contract for Diabetic Supplies for Sunny Hill Nursing Home (Kevin Lynn, Maggie McDowell)
| RESULT: MOVED FORWARD [UNANIMOUS]
TO: Will County Board MOVER: Mica Freeman, Member SECONDER: Annette Parker, Member AYES: Ventura, Mueller, Freeman, Kraulidis, Mitchell, Parker, Tyson |
X. PUBLIC COMMENT
Mrs. Adams announced there were no public comments.
XI. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR
Ms. Ventura stated next month I plan to save space for some of the things we learned at NACo, especially around mental health and housing our homeless. There were counties that presented Resolutions that passed in their counties and I asked them to e-mail them to me. If I receive those, I would like to present them to this Committee for consideration. Of course, if I don’t receive them, we won’t need them on the agenda.
XII. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XIII. ADJOURNMENT
http://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=4104&Inline=True
Alerts Sign-up