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Home My WebLink About2023-02-08 - Minutes -CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE ARKANS ARKAH5A5 MEETING MINUTES Fayetteville City Board of Health 02/08/2023 4:30 p.m. Room 326 & Virtual Meeting Members: Hershey Garner, Lenny Whiteman, Huda Sharaf, Gary Berner, Stephanie Ho Ex-Officio Members: Meredith Lowry, Richard Taffner, Lance Reed, Lioneld Jordan, Brad Hardin Health Officer: Marti Sharkey Guest: Kit Williams, Stephen Boss Meeting Location Information: City Hall Room 326 Register in advance for this webinar: https:Hus06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN NrZOe-9LT gNJV4vXgQL7w Webinar ID 836 1143 1226 1. Call to Order and Roll Call — Hershey Garner, Chair 2. Approve January 11th minutes a. Approved by Gary Berner and second by Stephanie Ho with two modified corrections 3. Covid a. Cases a. Marti Sharkey stated Covid numbers continue to decline post -Thanksgiving i. Reported cases and hospitalizations are at the lowest levels since the beginning of the pandemic ii. Deaths as well, two reported deaths in Washington County during the month of January iii. Influenza like illness presenting to local ER's is 2% of all cases and a non -season baseline is 1 % iv. Respiratory illness pattern very low giving it is the first week of February v. RSV is following a similar pattern in children vi. Seeing complications from viral pathogens vii. Seeing results co infections viii. Absentee rates in Washington County schools have been about 6% b. Testing c. Hershey Garner questioned if more tests were sent out a. Marti Sharkey stated yes, she thought the deadline to order more test was the first week of February d. Hospitalizations Mailing Address: 113 W. Mountain Street www.fayetteville-ar.gov Fayetteville, AR 72701 a. Lenny Whiteman stated numbers are decreasing and continue to decrease from where they were in December i. Trending statewide as well e. Vaccinations a. Very slow uptake, continue to encourage people to get vaccinations i. Data showing boosters are making a difference on morbidity and mortality ii. Hope to move forward with leadership at the national level with an annual Covid vaccine; and within a year or two combined with the flu vaccine and be a universal flu and Covid vaccine without having to be variant specific iii. Hershey Garner questioned medication shortages 1. Marti Sharkey stated no, still seeing low uptake in the use of Paxlovid and hesitancy by physicians in the community a. Medications are effective; continue to encourage people to use medications b. People want to wait and see, the medications don't work like that, must start them right away 2. Gary Berner stated Community clinic has a low prescription rate, they do not get a lot of resistance a. Seeing mild symptoms b. Those with risk factors are willing to take it 3. Marti Sharkey stated there has been a lot of kick back about monoclonal antibodies not being available; she stated they are not effective against the circulating variants 4. Gary Berner reflected to discussions a few months ago regarding cost, coverage and high pharmacy fees, he stated he has not heard any more about it and wondered if anyone else had been hearing concerns a. Marti Sharkey stated she is worried about what is going to happen and what the cost will be in the next few months with the ending of the National Pandemic Decree 5. Marti Sharkey stated the Fayetteville Police Department got a second female Asian social worker and they are trying to get another female worker to start working with her in the community. She stated she is already making a big difference; especially working with victims of abuse a. Recently presented at the NWA Health Summit b. Will be speaking at a couple upcoming national forums Dashboard a. Marti Sharkey spoke on the respiratory dashboard and stated they are hoping to get a computer science intern embedded with the Council this Summer to start coding what the public intern put together i. State is not providing data but can get it from other sources ii. The NWA Task Force for Behavioral Health is making some progress 1. Trying to mimic the model for medicine in general but doing it in the behavioral health realm to get more social workers, phycologists, and using community health workers to start filling in pieces iii. Looking at the possibility of working with different agencies with the NWA Council and health care providers to provide hospital at home services and E.D. at home services in the area to help those that is a burden to go to the hospital/emergency room and those that would be better cared for at home 1. Hershey Garner questioned if it will be a pilot program 2. Marti Sharkey stated no a. Little Rock St Bernard's has a hospital at home care i. CMS is reimbursing as well as BCBS b. Conversations are happening; more to come 4. Social Determinants of Health — Rotational Schedule: a. Stephanie Ho stated there continues to be a tax on LGBTQ people in the state of Arkansas i. She spoke on the importance of checking in with patients and clients to make sure they are mental health supported, have good support systems, and have access to resources if they need more support. ii. Organizations that can be helpful in directing people to resources: 1. PFLAG 2. Northwest Arkansas Equality 3. Intransitive 4. Transgender Equality Network iii. Marti Sharkey questioned if there is website listing of support systems 1. Stephanie Ho stated she would put a list together b. December — Health Care Systems (Lenny) i. *Note presenter was unable to attend c. Next Month Topic of discussion for Social Determinants of Health Rotational Schedule: i. March — Education (Huda) 5. Brief discussion was held regarding upcoming meetings a. Meetings will be held every other month unless something comes up b. Lenny Whiteman stated he would like to get an additional speaker on the agenda in April to speak on the ending of the Public Health Emergency. He stated the state will be going through redeterminations of coverage of Medicaid and Medicaid Expansion Plans 6. Adjourn