Dallas County Health Department

Year End Report for 2022 

With the end of 2022, we find ourselves looking forward to 2023.  The staff saw some pretty remarkable things happen.  We resumed a lot of activities that had taken a back seat to COVID-19.Our nurses and communicable disease investigator did investigate 88 reports of communicable disease (non-COVID) and 68 animal bites.  We are seeing an increase in syphilis and gonorrhea with 87 people being tested and/or treated for sexually transmitted disease.

People assume that tuberculosis is no longer an issue in our community but we had 7 cases of either active or latent cases.Our women’s health program saw about 75 women and diagnosed 8 with human papilloma virus which is the virus that can cause cervical cancer.  Our Show Me Healthy Women program provides pelvic, breast exams, mammograms for uninsured Missouri women 35-64 years of age that fall within income guidelines.  Our WiseWoman program provides lab work and consultations with our nurse practitioner. 

We test children ages 1-6 for blood lead which if high enough can harm a child’s growth, behavior, and ability to learn.  We had 15 children tested and did case management on those with levels higher than normal.

We immunized 983 patients and gave 1,712 vaccinations.  Vaccines are for all ages from 2 months and up.  Our grant from the Dallas County Senior Tax Board provides funding for those Dallas County residents 60 years old and up for shingles vaccine at no cost to them.  This is a very popular program.

Rachel Badgett, Health Educator, was able to resume her school health presentations in person.  She had 2460 participants for 2022.  Along with school health, she hosted or met with 1203 community members and had 137 participate in Shape Up Dallas County.  Our Maternal Child Health program worked on a number of activities.

Our environmental health department was busy with Shannon Jackson performing 161 food site visits/inspections with 22 food permits issued.  You can read the inspection results in the Buffalo Reflex or on our website.  We did 176 in house private drinking water tests with 54 of those tests failing because of presence of either E-coli or coliform or both.  Shannon also permitted 39 septic systems and followed up with 48 recalls.   Dallas County Health Department hosted an onsite wastewater training for registered installers in May.  Without this training opportunity installers must travel to Jefferson City to get continuing education credit. 

The infant formula shortage put a tremendous strain our on WIC department.  With 2,391 enrolled in WIC finding suitable alternative formulas was a challenge.  WIC is a supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children up to age of 5 years old that fall within income guidelines  

We printed 1,650 Missouri birth/death certificates in our office.  This doesn’t include the number of people we gave information on how to obtain vital records outside of Missouri. 

We had 13,191 phone calls for the year.   Our busiest months for calls were when new COVID vaccines were available.

We did a total overhaul of our website and soon will be launching a mobile phone app.  We received grant funding for a new digital sign which should be up and running late January or early February as weather permits.

Cheryl Eversole was named as a 2022 Rural Health Champion by the Missouri Office of Rural Health and Primary Care.   

Missouri still ranks last in the nation for funding public health.  Dallas County Health Department received less than $20,000 in state funding.  Most health department funding comes through federal grants administered through the Missouri Department of Health.   

What does 2023 hold for public health in Dallas County?  Workforce Development grant in the amount of $138,854 will allow staff to further their education at no out-of-pocket cost for them.   Several employees are already enrolled in classes.  We have been notified of a sum of $25,000 for Building Communities.  This is the program that purchased equipment and signage for walking trail and pocket park.  We are working with local agencies on community needs that will fit in the grant requirements. 

We will be receiving a five-year infrastructure grant that we hope to use to expand some of our services.  We haven’t gotten a dollar amount for infrastructure but should know soon. 

Again, the Dallas County Senior Tax Board will be funding shingles vaccine for those Dallas County residents 60 and older.

We are working with CMH on a new area program utilizing paramedics to follow up with discharged patients in the effort to curtail hospital readmissions and emergency room visits   

We received $350,000 grant for our new building but we are far from having enough funds to break ground especially with the dramatic increase in building supplies.  We continue to work on grants and donations for our building project.  We have applied for NAP tax credits and are waiting for award announcement.  We have applied for ARPA funding but still waiting for paperwork.  Grants for capital building projects are very difficult to find.