Hamilton County Public Health Nursing Service (HCPHNS) Team, Hamilton County Department of Health
From left to right
- Cathy Simons
- Mary Jo Flanagan
- Patricia Yates
- Kristen King
- Julie Lasik
- Avis Warner
- Maria Belyea
- Tracey Hunt
- Beth Waldron
- Terry Wyant
- Karen Levison
- Joyce Cook
- Cal Stanton
- Katryna Wells
The Hamilton County Public Health Nursing Service conducted a drill regarding capacity and continuity of operations, in an all too real situation. For a variety of reasons the county experienced a major reduction in their nursing staff. For a two week period, no public health nurses were available; and on any given day during the period of limited resources (3 months), there were only 2 Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) nurses to cover the 3rd largest county geographically in the state and an agency average case load of 45 patients. The stress was felt across the department. Just-in-time training was initiated with the support and non-nursing staff to answer the phones and provided intake for both CHHA and the other public health programs. The existing nursing staff worked more hours, were on-call even during the busy holiday season. The directors covered all aspects of care, including service coordination activities, and triaging home visits. Thankfully the neighboring local health departments were available to provide their expertise when questions arose. The HCPHNS worked with hospitals in 5 neighboring counties to assure safe discharge plans, and they were never forced to close CHHA acute admissions.
