Riley County Health Department Advisory Council Meeting

Riley County Health Department Advisory Council
    The Council met June 26th, 2013 with the new Administrator of the Health Department, Brenda Nichols.  Ginny Barnard, Chair of the Council spoke for the members of the Council in welcoming Ms. Nichols and of the feeling of relief that the Health Department now has leadership again.
    Ms. Nichols spoke of her excitement and of the good feelings she has encountered as she took over the job of administrator and her delight at the great number of excellent programs the Health Department has and is performing.  She complimented the Council on their hard work in helping with the budget and particularly Johnette Shepek on her presentation and defense of the Health Department before the County Commission on budget issues.
    Ginny Barnard welcomed Adam Bowen as a member of the Council.  Dr. Bowen is a dentist with the Konza Prairie Community Dental Center, the satellite dental clinic housed in
the Riley County Health Department. The Konza Prairie Community Health and Dental Center is in Junction City and is a Federally Qualified Health Care Center partially funded by the Federal Government as well as by patient fees and by grants of various kinds dealing with total health care particularly for those underserved citizens but which serves all who come.
    The Riley County Health Council has been scrutinizing the possibility of discontinuing the Primary Care Clinic in the Health Department. The clinic was started a number of years ago when there were no other clinics serving the county population in need of health care. The clinic is serving a declining number of patients during the last few year.  Dr. Paul Hesse, a Council member and the Public Health Officer at Fort Riley and long time member of the former Health Department Board, has suggested that a better arrangement might be to further associate with the Federally Qualified Konza Health Center in Junction City.
    The rest of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the
Junction City Clinic with it’s CEO and Finance Manager. The Clinic has received a large Federal grant to expand the territory that it serves and is planning new construction with “state of the art” medical facilities all in one building. Thus this is an excellent time to be considering partnership with the Junction City Clinic.  The web site for the Center contains all the information discussed by the council and for those interested could be a good way to learn more about the Clinic. www.konzaprairiechc.com The next meeting will be July 24th at 4 PM at the Health Department.

               Submitted by  Sue Cohen