Title
Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) recommending the Board:
1) Make findings in accordance with County Ordinance 3.13.030 that it is appropriate to contract with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to provide a fellow from the California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal EIS) to track, report, and/or analyze data to support the County Public Health Division’s response to COVID-19 under Agreement 6165 because “(C) due to the limited timeframes, temporary or occasional nature, or schedule for the project or scope of work, the ongoing aggregate of work to be performed is not sufficient to warrant addition of permanent staff;”
2) Approve and authorize the Chair to sign the Agreement 6165 with CDPH for a maximum obligation of $45,000, with a term of July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023; and
3) Authorize the HHSA Director, or designee, to execute further documents relating to Agreement 6165, contingent upon County Counsel and Risk Management approval, including amendments which do not increase the maximum compensation or term of the agreement.
FUNDING: Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND:
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has a California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) Fellowship program in which it places a qualified fellow with a participating county. The participating county sponsors a fellow, who provides services under the auspices of CDPH and receives both compensation as well as work experience. CDPH is accepting applications for the Cal-EIS Fellowship Program for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-23 training year.
HHSA currently has one Epidemiologist on staff in the Public Health Division. Pre- COVID the ongoing job duties included syndromic surveillance of the disease burden in El Dorado County; database management of our Vital Statistics system, disease reporting interface with the California Department of Public Health, WellDorado data tool, and joint partner reporting databases. The Epidemiologist is responsible for program evaluation of all Public Health programs which includes developing and tracking performance measures and quality assurance tools. In addition, the Epidemiologist assists partner organizations in special data projects including developing various data reports to be used in presentations, grant writing, etc.
The COVID pandemic changed the expectations around the role of the Epidemiologist which includes specific deliverables associated with the various COVID funding sources and mandates. These increased job duties include gathering, interpreting, and reporting a variety of COVID related statistics to the State and the public through our COVID dashboard; enhancing our epidemiologic capacity to better respond to future endemics by strengthening our reporting systems; upgrading our data platforms and improving our interface with healthcare partners; developing performance metrics around the tasks associated with the COVID funding work plans; and creating assessments and data reports to help guide decision making around our response to current and future outbreaks. In order to build the increased epidemiologic capacity expected of Public Health, the Public Health Division is interested in sponsoring a Cal-EIS fellow to support existing staff in the increased epidemiologic responsibilities related to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The CalEIS fellow will assist the resident epidemiologist in building the enhanced epidemiologic capacity required by funders by strengthening Public Health’s data sharing capacity among healthcare partners, cleaning database coding language to streamline data analysis, conducting after action reports of Public Health response efforts, assessing the disease status of the County along with a variety of other tasks designed to ensure Public Health’s ability to appropriately respond to the next health event. Additionally, if needed, the fellow will perform other work benefiting from the expertise of an epidemiologist or statistician that exceeds the capacity of Public Health staff. HHSA does not have a sustainable funding source to support an additional epidemiologist position within the Public Health Division. The Cal-EIS fellowship program is intended to provide quality short-term support to health departments at a fraction of the price of permanent or contract staff. The COVID pandemic has created a need for short-term support in order to maintain the day to day epidemiologic responsibilities and meet the enhanced expectations resulting from the pandemic.
CDPH requires that the Board approve and sign Agreement 6165 and documentation of the Board’s approval be submitted to them, in order to participate in the Fellowship program. CDPH will pay the fellow up to $3,750 per month in the FY 2022-23 training year and will bill the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) to recover the costs, with a maximum obligation to HHSA of $45,000. This agreement will be funded with the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021.
Lastly, HHSA will not know until March or April 2022 whether or not a fellow has selected the County as their placement site. If the County is chosen by a fellow, CDPH will sign Agreement 6165. Agreement 6165 is being brought to the Board in anticipation that the County will be selected and to enter into an agreement before July 1, 2022.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board could choose to decline to enter into this work experience reimbursement agreement with the California Department of Public Health.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION:
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel, Risk Management, and Human Resources
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There will be no Net County Cost associated with this agreement. Sufficient appropriations will be requested in HHSA’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 Budget request.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS:
1) Clerk of the Board to obtain signature of Chair on two (2) originals of Agreement 6165.
2) Clerk of the Board to return both signed original Agreements to HHSA Contracts Unit at 3057 Briw Rd, Suite B, to obtain final signature.
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT:
N/A
CONTACT:
Don Semon, Director, Health and Human Services Agency