As Churchill County looks at the possibility of establishing a local health district, the idea includes opening a satellite lab to the Nevada State in Reno here in Fallon. The issue was a topic of discussion during the County Board of Health meeting last month and was mentioned during the county commission meeting last week.
Currently the State of Nevada is the health district for Churchill County. Lyon, Storey, Carson, and Douglas Counties have coordinated their health district activities including health inspections for restaurants, public health nursing, and COVID testing, operating the Quad-County health district.
According to Churchill County Commission Chair, Pete Olsen, the rest of the rural counties have always relied on the state for public health issues, but during the pandemic getting answers and accurate data from the state has been frustrating to say the least. “When you don’t have the pandemic, it is cheaper for counties to rely on the state for these services,” said Olsen. “We have learned that now we have to rely on people who are not answerable to us.”
Olsen said the commissioners think it is important to have a staff who answers to the commissioners and the health board to safely protect the community and have access to the information and resources that it takes to do that, especially in a public health crisis. “I’m willing to give a lot of grace because none of us have ever done this before, but we need answers,” he said.
Shannon Ernst, director of Social Services for the county said during the Board of Health meeting that the state is exploring the idea of satellite labs throughout the state to serve rural areas because the state lab in Reno is reaching capacity. “They had started this conversation looking at Elko, and County Manager Barbee and I started discussing as we look at becoming a health district here, really a lab in Churchill County would be really ideal for the access points coming in from I-80 and Highway 95.”
She said it looks like “it is going to be a go, we have submitted a budget for the equipment to the state and they would fund all of that equipment, our remodel, and we would be starting that immediately.”
The lab would be located at the annex building at 485 W. B Street where the Western Nevada College nursing program has been housed. Commissioners have been working with WNC to find a new space for the nursing program and WNC has since moved it back to the Fallon Campus.
“The WNC nursing program is important to this community,” said Olsen. “The pandemic has highlighted the need for local medical staff and facilities, a small community like ours can retain staff better if they are local and it benefits local students with a good job and that program ensures care for our community.”
In addition to the local lab issue, Ernst said she and her staff have been concerned about the turn-around time for the COVID testing through the State lab. “We are still seeing a six to seven day for turn around.”
She submitted a request to be included in a new contract with Quest Labs under the state, that was approved, and she is waiting for Quest to set up an account and provide supplies to the county. “The state contract will actually allow us to have first responders’ turnaround times within 24 hours and we would have community turn around within three days.”
The contract provides for a direct online system that allows more timely testing results, and the county will process all their own testing here in the community.
Mayor Ken Tedford attended the meeting on behalf of the City of Fallon and said the city is in agreement with the idea of a local health district and said the concept will “give a lot better health care for us locally, not regionally. We believe in community health care not regional.” Additionally, the city is in full support in trying to find a place available for the nursing program and a local lab to quicken results of the testing.
“Once again that puts us in local control not the state level which has caused a great deal of frustration for us in this community,” said Tedford.
Commissioner Pete Olsen expressed his appreciation to Ernst and County Manager Jim Barbee for their efforts to gather the information on putting together a community lab. “This is unfortunately, paramount. We are finding that the testing is so lacking we need to take this over ourselves and we appreciate the support we’re going to get from the state,” said Olsen.
Ernst also reported that the county has hired an epidemiologist and a second Public Health nurse who have both come on board, as well as an additional admin position to support the increase in work connected to testing and the requirements of COVID.
“One of the things we will see down the line,” said Dr. Tedd McDonald, chairman of the health board and the County Health Officer, “it sets up an infrastructure, especially with having a health district where we have a lot of the resources and tools we need to expand health care for this community, this is a good place to start, so out of something bad is going to come something really remarkable.”
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