KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment will ask the Board of County Commissioners to approve nearly $4.2 million for the creation of an Epidemiology Division.
The request, which is expected to be paid for with federal funds Johnson County received to address the COVID-19 pandemic, will be discussed during Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, which will be the first held in person at the County Commission offices in downtown Olathe since mid-March.
The county health department is asking for $4,154,405 from the county’s general fund to create six full-time and 35 part-time positions. The money also would be used to continue COVID-19 testing in Johnson County.
The Department of Health and Environment scrambled to re-allocate and train staff for contract tracing and case investigation needs when the COVID-19 pandemic struck three months ago, but a memo to the county commission from JCDHE Director Dr. Sanmi Areola and Assistant County Manager Joe Connor said such staffing is “not enough support to perform these duties at the scope and scale required going forward.”
Areola plans to restructure his department and beef up its preparedness for future disease outbreaks through creation of the Epidemiology Division.
“This is needed to effectively respond to COVID-19 pandemic, build a department that can robustly respond to emerging and reemerging epidemics in the future, and one that can address different infectious and non-infectious challenges that the county faces now,” according to the memo.
The six new full-time positions — a manager, two epidemiologists, two investigators and administrative support — would investigate infectious disease clusters and also be responsible for county-wide health assessments of Johnson County residents as well as developing programming to prevent or respond to incidence of “communicable or chronic disease.”
“Beyond the pandemic, they will champion our much-needed population health research, analysis and build partnerships with (the) community to address social and economic determinants of health factors in our community,” the memo said.
The new Epidemiology Division will be data-driven, both in collecting and assessing health needs in Johnson County but also in applying the data toward solutions.
Under the plan, the county would hire and train 15 part-time contact tracers and 20 case investigators.
Other agenda items include updates on major projects in the county.
Construction of the new Johnson County Courthouse remains on budget and on schedule with “substantial completion” of the new building in August.
The roof and exterior of the building have been completed and plans are underway to move some employees into the building by November with a public opening expected in early 2021.
Meanwhile, staff moved into the new Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office this week and autopsies will begin being performed at the facility next week.
The only hiccup, according to the county manager’s memo, is that shipment of Lodox high-speed, full-body X-ray machine has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s unclear when it might be delivered.
