Town explores regionalized Boards of Health
Date: 8/20/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comEAST LONGMEADOW —Board of Selectmen Chair Jack Villamaino has recommended that Board of Health intern Yara Tayeh present the findings of her study into regionalized Boards of Health at the next Regional Board of Selectmen's meeting this fall.
"I think now we are finding more and more creative solutions to a lot of the problems and financial constraints that we're under," Villamaino said. "This is a great example of that."
Villamaino asked that the information in Tayeh's study also be forwarded to other boards in the region for their review prior to the meeting.
Tayeh, a Westfield native pursuing a master's degree in Public Health at Boston University, was tapped by the town as an intern and charged with the responsibility of the study, according to Health Inspector Fred Kowal.
Tayeh explained her findings and recommendation to pursue a regional Board of Health model moving forward at the Aug. 7 Board of Selectmen meeting.
"What regionalization can do is increase the quality and efficiency of public health service delivery," she said. "This is because you're pooling your resources and developing mutual aid agreements. As you can see, there are limited resources in Western Massachusetts."
Tayeh's findings, she said, were the result of months of research, including outreach to local and state public health professionals.
"I conducted several interviews with public health professionals across Massachusetts, either from fellow Boards of Health staff or from the State Department of Public Health or the Western Massachusetts Regional Health Office," she said.
Tayeh explained that the Massachusetts Regional Public Health Project Group recommends any regionalized Board of Health serve communities with a combined population of no less than 50,000 residents or 155 square miles, which makes East Longmeadow and some surrounding communities prime candidates for regionalization.
"The combination of Wilbraham, Monson, Longmeadow and East Longmeadow is just over 50,000 residents, so it's a great combination," she said.
Tayeh used public nursing as a prime example of a service regionalization could provide East Longmeadow.
"East Longmeadow currently does not have a public health nurse, but Longmeadow does, so Longmeadow would be able to provide public health nursing services to East Longmeadow and East Longmeadow could provide, perhaps, septic services or whatever Wilbraham, Monson or Longmeadow are lacking," she said.
Regionalization, Tayeh also asserted, would allow the towns within the region to expand their focus beyond the essential services currently being provided to larger public health issues.
"The direction public health is going is toward wellness and prevention and chronic diseases, not just inspections and things of that sort," she said. "So you'll be moving toward larger public health issues while still maintaining local authority."
Though not the primary goal, the pooling of these resources, Tayeh said, would ultimately be a money saver for the communities involved.
"Cost savings can be achieved because the local Boards of Health would be running more efficiently, but that is not the main goal of regionalization. It's just a positive aspect," she said, adding that larger districts are also more competitive in securing grants.
Tayeh did admit that there were challenges associated with going to a regional health model.
"The first one is getting an agreement because it's difficult to come upon one formal agreement that everyone is OK with and share the same vision," she said. "But that can be brought about with discussion between Boards of Health and Boards of Selectmen and involving boards in all steps of regionalization planning."
Budgeting was also identified as an obstacle standing in the way of regionalization, however, Tayeh said the state has provided tools through which an acceptable agreement could be reached.
"What I've presented in the binder of appendices is what is called a town-by-town comparison chart and that is provided by the State Department of Public Health and Boston University's School of Public Health," she said. "You can use this tool to form what is called a needs assessment and communities can come together and assess what services are most particularly being requested and what services are being requested but are not able to be provided to the residents. This is how the communities could look across the services being delivered and decide how to organize a regional health district."
Addressing staffing concerns, Tayeh said, "The State Department of Public Health has made a very significant statement that they do not intend to lose jobs, but to redefine job descriptions, putting more people out in the field doing more administrative work in health management."
