Hill County Health Department looking to hire more staff to alleviate workload

The Hill County Health Board discussed during its weekly COVID-19 update meeting Friday hiring temporary workers to address an increasingly heavy workload at the department, as well as the issue of business non-compliance with the Gov. Bullock’s mask directive.

In a separate meeting this morning, the board accepted the resignation due to personal reasons of Hill County Health Officer Jessica Sheehy and agreed to combine that position with the Hill County health director position. The board appointed Health Director Kim Larson to the combined position.

Watch for more about today’s meeting in the Tuesday edition of The Havre Daily News.

Larson said Friday the health department is starting to get a bit overwhelmed by the contact tracing that has become necessary amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with new cases being found more days that not.

In an interview Thursday, Larson said with the health care system at large dealing with COVID-19 it’s more important than ever for people to get their flu vaccine in order to prevent the system, including local heath departments like hers, from being further strained.

“We don’t want to strain our health care system any more than necessary,” she said, “And the possibility of our health care system already being overwhelmed by COVID alone is pretty high, but if we add on to that a huge outbreak of influenza … then our health care system will be really overwhelmed.”

She said hospitals are pretty well-prepared for flu season when it comes around every year, and while some years are worse than others it’s a recurring and anticipated phenomenon, but having COVID-19 in the mix makes things much more complicated.

However, because the methods used to avoid contracting influenza, vaccine notwithstanding, are virtually identical to those used to avoid contracting COVID-19, washing hands often and thoroughly, social distancing, staying home when sick and so on, she said, she is hoping for a relatively tame season.

She emphasized the importance of getting the flu vaccine as soon as possible, which will help a tame flu season become more likely.

During the update Friday, Larson said the increased contact tracing workload has prompted the department to start looking for temporary staff to help them and, so far, there seem to be some promising possibilities.

“We have a couple people we’ve talked to that have worked in public health in the past, have done contact tracing and are willing to help us,” she said. “So, I’m hoping to get them on board.”

Larson also said she was in contact with the Association of Montana Public Health Officials, which has been assisting local health departments in the state with their contact tracing efforts, early in the week to talk about the situation.

She said there is also the possibility of some funding for the department via a grant to possibly hire additional staff for contact tracing and disease investigation, as well as, possibly, an immunization nurse for off-site flu shot clinics.

Larson said during Thursday’s interview that she’s working hard to get set up for flu clinics despite staffing issues.

She said more information on the clinics would be made available when they are good to go.

Hill County Sanitarian-in-Training Will Lorett talked Friday about businesses in the area not enforcing Bullock’s July 15 directive, which states people in counties with four or more active cases of COVID-19 must wear masks in certain indoor and outdoor environments including businesses open to the public.

Lorett said he’s seen the department receive a number of complaints about businesses in the area which do not appear to be enforcing the directive.

He said the department has since been in touch with these businesses, many of which apparently required education on the directive and masks, and he hopes that they are all now in compliance.

“Some of it was an education problem and we’ve worked through that,” he said.

Sheehy gave an update on the recent results of contact tracing in the county.

Sheehy said almost every positive case in the county was found to be related to travel or was found through contact tracing, but a few cases are still under investigation.

Hill County saw it’s third COVID-19-related death Saturday.