Their Hands Are Full

With today’s failing economy more people are becoming susceptible to health problems because they are unable to get the medical care that they need.

A conversation with Pat Brake, the office manager at the Hart County Health Department, revealed that the incidence of people utilizing her facility for healthcare has increased.

The increase in patients at the health department has unfortunately been met with a reduction in staff.

The clerical and nursing staff at the health department has been reduced by half. Reduction in the staff has led to cutbacks in general clinic days.

Clinic days allowed patients to be seen for a variety of reasons. Family planning clinic days have been reduced from four days a week to once a week.

Brake says that they are not allowed to compile a waiting list for patients who cannot be seen. They circumvent this problem by obtaining the contact information of women who cannot be seen, and they are called if a position becomes available.

Because it is so difficult to make an appointment with the health department, it is rare that a patient misses an appointment said Brake.

Brake has even appealed to outside sources to provide funding for the health department. She has applied for grants from various organizations even trying to solicit the help of talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

The health department asks the local hospital to spare nurses to assist with the clinic days at the health department, but because of staff cutbacks at the hospital it is rare that they are able to function short-handed.

On the day that I spoke to Brake she said that they had scheduled 27 appointments with two nurses on call and one visiting nurse assisting.

How long will the clinic be able to function short-handed, and how many people are being left out of the loop because there just is not enough staff?

I was given the invitation to just observe the health department for a day; I hope to paint a clearer picture of the plight by witnessing the problem first hand.