Committee on Family, Health and Human Services Minutes
March 13, 2007
Committee Members In Attendance: Judy Myers, Chair, Martin Rogowsky, Clinton Young, William Burton, Kenneth Jenkins.
In Attendance: CEO: Bill Randolph. DOH: Dr. Joshua Lipsman, Cheryl Archbald BOL: Louise Gantress and Melanie Montalto. Planned Parenthood: Reina Schiffrin. Guests: Liz Anderson, Journal News.
Items Discussed:
Minutes
Chairwoman Myers called the meeting to order at 10:43 a.m.
Dr. Joshua Lipsman, Commissioner of the Department of Health reiterated the philosophy of the Health Department regarding not competing with not for profit agencies, and thus the closing of the family planning clinic in Yonkers on January 1, 2007. Upon closing, 769 clients requested that their records be sent to other health facilities. 35 records were sent to Open Door, 100 to the Greenburgh Heath Center, 100 to various facilities, and the rest were sent to Planned Parenthood. The family planning clinic had a total of 2,600 cases, but they were not all active at the time of closing. Letters were sent to every client explaining that the clinic was closing, how to obtain their records, and other health agencies they could use. 1132 of the letters were returned or the clients were non responsive. 363 of the letters returned marked undeliverable.
Commissioner Lipsman explained that the Department of Health has not received any major complaints since the clinic closed and that the transition is going smoothly. He stated that the County health clinics are still open, they are just no longer providing this particular family planning service. Since the clinics are still open clients are able to walk in and ask questions.
Chairwoman Myers stated that some of the staff had lobbied against the closing of the clinic. She asked how the staff is now. Dr. Lipsman said that they have all been reassigned and they all seem happy with their new positions. He said he has not received any complaints from them.
Legislator Rogowsky asked why the staff had lobbied so hard to prevent the closing of the clinic. Dr. Lipsman stated that people in general do not like change and it was possible that the staff did not understand that they would be reassigned.
Reina Schiffrin, of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, explained that there are five Planned Parenthood sites in in the Hudson Peconic area. They are open six days a week while the County clinic was only open two days a week. She said there has been some difficulty in taking over the County clinic clients because many do not bring their old records. This has made it hard for them to keep track of how many cases are transferring from the County. This also means that Planned Parenthood has to repeat testing and ask for medical history, so the staff has to spend longer periods of time with each client and the testing costs more money. The Yonkers Planned Parenthood has seen the largest increase in clients because it is in the same building as the former County Clinic.
Reina Schiffrin stated that 520 records have been transferred, and 138 of them have been seen. She said that 76% of these cases have been Hispanic. Most of these clients do not speak English, so it is necessary for a translator to be in the room. This causes longer sessions and the need for additional staff. She explained that most of the clients are seen for free and the others pay on a sliding scale. Undocumented clients are seen for free.
Reina Schiffrin continued to explain that Planned Parenthood is changing their registration form to include the question: “Have you been to the Department of Health Clinic?”
Reina Schiffrin stated that Planned Parenthood has not yet received any of the transitional money from the County that was budgeted for 2007. She said the money is greatly needed to help compensate for this influx of Spanish speaking, needy clients. They would like to hire a facilitated enroller to look at medical records and help clients apply for Medicaid. They would also like to hire an interpreter for all three clinics and a cultural competency trainer.
Chairwoman Myers asked how the Department of Health handled these situations. Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Archbald explained that the staff was trained in family planning Spanish in order to communicate about the services they provided.
Reina Schiffrin said that it is hard to find bilingual nurse practitioners as well as bilingual midlevel staff. She also stated that they are seeing an influx in French Creole clients coming in from Haiti which makes communication difficult.
Reina Schiffrin explained that many women do not come to Planned Parenthood every month, most of them come twice a year, so they are expecting the number of new clients to increase as the year continues.
Reina Schiffrin explained that Planned Parenthood does not receive any County dollars for their annual budget. They are funded by State and Federal dollars.
Chairwoman Myers asked how Open Door and the Greenburgh Health Center are doing with their new clients. Commissioner Lipsman explained that the number of clients they took on is too small for them to see an impact because they are high volume clinics.
Legislator Jenkins stated that Planned Parenthood could contract out for a cultural competency trainer to train staff on an as needed basis. Reina Schiffrin agreed.
Moved by Legislator Young and seconded by Legislator Burton the Committee on Families, Health and Human Services adjourned at 11:31.
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