In place of the soon-to-dissolve Tri-County Health Department will rise three new public health agencies -- serving Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties -- each born of the tumultuous politics of a global pandemic.
their own public health departments in less than 18 months, they say they are ready to go in the new year — ready with services to combat communicable diseases, sexual diseases and mental health challenges while also doing the more pedestrian tasks of restaurant inspections, air quality monitoring and vital records documentation.
Ludwig was Tri-County’s deputy director and the Adams County Health Department is helmed by Dr. Kelly Weidenbach, who was director of planning and information management at Tri-County. “All things equal, I expect that the three counties collectively will need to secure somewhat higher staffing and funding levels than were seen at Tri-County in order to maintain the same level of service, due to the economies of scale that Tri-County was able to realize,” he said. “For example, three medical directors are needed now across the three counties, rather than just one.”
“There’s a very low uptake of clinical services here,” Hill said, noting that 95% of county residents have private health insurance. Arapahoe County Public Health is placing a greater emphasis on clinical services than its neighbor to the south. It wants to hire 84 nurses, nurse practitioners and medical assistants while having a chief medical officer on contract. It will take over full Tri-County medical clinics in Aurora and Englewood, while also maintaining offices in Greenwood Village and Aurora.
“Douglas County is much different from Arapahoe County and Arapahoe County is much different from both,” she said. “The advantage of a single-county health department is the ability to be responsive to individual needs.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tri-County Health Department set to completely dissolve on Dec. 31The Tri-County Health Department will completely dissolve on Dec. 31 and in the new year, residents can seek public health services through the individual health departments for Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties.
Read more »
Hays County Food Bank gets $1.2 million from county to build new, bigger facilityThe Hays County Food Bank has outgrown its current facility, and got a $1.2 million boost...
Read more »
Ex-Starr County worker admits to smuggling migrants in a county vanA Starr County van was used by a county employee more than 40 times to smuggle immigrants.
Read more »
'Misinformation has changed everything:' How one local health department is restoring trust in vaccines“We have to own the fact that our communication missteps created the environment where disinformation flourished,” Brian Castrucci of the de Beaumont Foundation said. Story by laurenmsausser of KHNews:
Read more »
Power restored to 4 Pierce County utility substations after Christmas Day vandalizationTacoma Public Utilities has restored power to their substations on Tuesday afternoon after vandals intentionally caused damage on Christmas Day, putting over 14K people in the dark.
Read more »
Philadelphia Board of Health vacancy should be filled by mental health expert | Opinion'Adding a mental health professional to the Philadelphia Board of Health...would be an important step to tackle the complex public health challenges our city faces,' Kate Fox writes.
Read more »