According to Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan , who is spearheading the effort, leaders from seven counties — Washington , Beaver , Butler , Lawrence , Greene , Fayette , and Westmoreland — have met twice since February to discuss the next steps for the proposal of forming a regional health department. Leaders from the counties first met Feb. 23 and then again on April 19 , Ms. Vaughan said.
"We have all been frustrated with how the state health department handled things when the pandemic first hit," Ms. Vaughan said.
"One solution we are discussing is to develop a regional health department. At this point we have not hired a consultant about it, and our [ Washington County ] department is compiling insight from different counties about challenges they've experienced, and thoughts and ideas they might have to improve things.
"We will send a joint letter to the state with our recommendations for improvement. Then once accumulated, we will send one document with the consensus of the seven counties.
"This is a first step to see if we can work out issues directly with state department of health. If that doesn't work, then we will come back and decide what the next steps are."
Ms. Vaughan said they hope to finish compiling insight from the counties by the end of May. The state department of health did not respond to requests for comment.
Butler County Commissioner Leslie A. Osche touched on a "large-scale" pandemic plan done years ago with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency , as well as other county emergency management agencies across the commonwealth.
A significant challenge Butler leaders faced last year at the start of the pandemic was that their plan was "never reviewed," which led to disjointed communication and planning, Ms. Osche said.
"Communication was a continual challenge and the counties' input, here at the ground level, was ignored by the [state] department of health," she said. "We were paid lip service at best.
"I acknowledge that they set up regular calls through the County Commissioner's Association , but in most cases, our attempts to protect our own residents, especially the most vulnerable, were impeded.
"We offered local plans for testing and tracing and protecting our nursing homes, which were ignored. And now in today's news we find a breach by the state's contracted provider for contact tracing. Frankly, that is a disgrace."
The "greatest concern" in the development of a regional health department includes obtaining necessary funding and sorting out responsibilities, Ms. Vaughan said.
"I envision this will be a process, but we're hoping for a flow of dialogue between the state and the counties that will allow for us to find solutions together that would meet the counties' needs as well as the states'," she said. "We just know how frustrated our residents have been, so we just want to make sure their needs are being met."
Lacretia Wimbley : lwimbley@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1510 or on Twitter @Wimbleyjourno.
First Published May 10, 2021 , 5:26am
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