The Geauga Board of Overall health has voted unanimously to enter into a cross-jurisdictional agreement with the Lake County Common Overall health District to serve as a staffing agency for Geauga Public Overall health.
The agreement will save Geauga County residents as significantly as $600,000 annually in wellness solutions expenses, although preserving all the solutions they presently get at Geauga Public Overall health, according to a news release.
“This is not a takeover and it is not a merger,” Geauga Public Overall health Board President Richard Piraino stated in the release. “Lake County Common Overall health District will serve as a staffing agency for Geauga.
“Our agreement with Lake is the finest way for Geauga to keep manage of the wellness solutions we present our residents although saving these residents important dollars each year.”
The agreement requires impact on April three. Since Lake County Common Overall health District will be offering staffing going forward, 17 Geauga Public Overall health personnel will be laid off as of March 31. They will be capable to apply with Lake County Common Overall health District to provide these staffing solutions, but no one particular is assured a position, the release stated.
“We know this is painful for our Geauga Public Overall health personnel, and we’re really sorry for that. GPH is facing a price range shortfall of more than $500,000 in 2024, and we had to make a pretty tough choice,” Piraino mentioned in the release. “We have worked diligently to obtain the finest remedy, and we are getting into this agreement to assure we can continue offering the men and women we serve in Geauga County with the solutions they will need and deserve.”
All Geauga Public Overall health representatives, no matter whether GPH personnel or contracted Lake personnel, will continue functioning on behalf of and at the path of the Geauga Board of Overall health, according to the release. The Geauga Board of Overall health, appointed by elected Geauga officials, will continue to manage GPH policies, applications and solutions and will continue to problem its personal permits, keep its automobiles, workplace, site and its identity.
“Geauga residents will continue to go to the similar areas to get the similar solutions,” Piraino stated. “None of that will adjust.”
Since of the agreement among the wellness districts, the combined populations of the two counties will open the possibility to apply for bigger grants, which are vital for funding wellness departments, unavailable to Geauga or Lake on its personal, the release stated. And the efficiencies that will be gained provide added benefits to the two wellness departments and residents of each counties.
The positive aspects, according to the Geauga Board of Overall health, include things like:
• Gaining access to extra applications such as outreach solutions due to the fact of enhanced access to grant funding sources
• Cutting the price of public wellness solutions to residents by funding some present applications by way of qualifying grants
• Sharing specialty employees, such as in the places of information evaluation, accreditation, neighborhood wants assessment, emergency preparedness, finance, and grant writing
• Enhanced coordination for emergency response and public wellness emergencies.
“It is clear that we can be stronger with each other and a lot more fiscally accountable to Geauga County residents,” Piraino stated.