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11/02/2005: "County Urged To Attend Quarantine Workshop"

(JoAnne Campbell, John Manning and Mark Tompkins address the SJC Board of Health -aka: BOCC)

It is not common knowledge that the members of the Board of County Commissioners also are the County Board of Health, and in that capacity they met with the SJC H&CS (Health & Community Services) recently to receive a report on Public Health Standards and a Communicable Disease Report.

The good news is the Health Department has scored 80% on the State Health Standards, but even that has not satisfied John Manning, Director of the SJC H&CS, who told the Commissioners that while the less than 100% score was due to "paper standards" that had to do with how well his department informed the public on what the department does, he was "disappointed in our performance and what to assure you that improving our performance on the next review is a priority for this department".

Part of the Communicable Disease Report addressed the regulatory powers of the Health Officer, which include the power to legally quarantine infected or potentially infected individuals; but pointed out this is rarely done. At the end of the presentation, Manning told the Board that the State Board of Health has scheduled an "Isolation & Quarantine Workshop entitled "Law and Policy" that may be attended by invitation only, and urged the Board to send a representative to it.