After two years of battling COVID-19, the Barton County Health Department is breathing a collective sigh of relief, albeit a tentative one. As case numbers drop, Health Director Karen Winkelman’s beleaguered staff can finally return to doing what they did before the pandemic.
“We are able to get back to public health.” Winkelman said, in a report to the County Commission, meeting as the Board of Health Wednesday morning. “It’s refreshing.”
But, every time there is a call about COVID, “it takes your breath away,” she said. They wait for the other shoe to fall.
The staff were all stressed, but stayed positive throughout. The commissioners thanked Winkelman and her team for their efforts.
Also present Wednesday were members of the Health Department Advisory Committee. Winkelman took the job of Health Department director two weeks into the pandemic, said committee member Krista Smith. “She has done a fantastic job.”
Fellow committee member John Stettinger thanked Winkelman, her entire staff and the community as a whole. “We fought this battle and won.”
“When I initially got on the commission in December 2020, we had a lot going on,” District 1 Commissioner Kirby Krier said, in defense of Winkelman. “There was a lot of information given out, a lot of misinformation. She had to sift through all that stuff. It was a tough situation.”
He’s not sure if COVID will ever go away. “I think we’ll live with it forever. It’s not, in my opinion, a pandemic anymore.”
Winkelman also praised the partnerships and community engagement her department experienced. “I really can’t say enough about that." She also thanked the commissioners, both as the commission and as the Board of Health, for their support. “We really appreciate that also.”
A COVID update
“We’ve seen a decline in the number of cases and the number of hospitalized individuals,” Winkelman said.
As for vaccination rates, 46% of Barton County residents have had their shots (that doesn’t count boosters). Statewide, the percentage is 53.6.
Health professionals break outbreaks down as epidemic with widespread occurrences, pandemic with global occurrences, and endemic, which means that it’s something that is “regularly found and it’s something to be expected in a certain area. And it’s consistent, it’s constant,” she said.
“We are shifting really strongly towards endemic right now,” she said.
“In public health, we tend to work on the proactive side of trying to prevent things and not on the reactive,” Winkelman said. However. COVID has forced them into a reactive state for the past two years.
“We had guidance all along but it was constant change and we tried to adapt to those changes,” she said. “So for public health going from a proactive where we look how we can improve the health of the community, we had to jump quickly into reactive and that was not a comfortable area for us.”
Short-term spells of reactivity during, say, a pertussis outbreak or a tornado, is one thing. But it is exhausting over the long term.
“But. right now. I feel like we’ve kind of shying away from the reactive and going towards the proactive again, which is a much more comfortable situation,” she said. “We had a lot of lessons learned through all of this.”
Looking at the local level
As of Monday, guidance from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are looking at things from a community level, she said. “I really, really like that they’re looking at it from a community aspect and what are our local needs.”
Barton County officials have said that all along. What was happening around the world or around the country didn’t always apply here.
To this end, the CDC now provides community-level information on COVID 19, she said. These reports are updated weekly.
The agency measures these levels (low, medium and high) by three metrics. These included the new number of COVID-19 admissions in the past seven days, the percentage of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the total new COVID cases in the past seven days.
“In Barton County, we are at a low,” Winkelman said.
This information is healthful for the community at large, but it also gives public health an idea of what its responsibilities are.
At a low level, residents just need to stay up to date on vaccines and boosters, follow CDC recommendations for isolation and quarantine and, if immunocompromised, have a plan to get tested if needed. From her department’s standpoint, they need to distribute and administer vaccines and ensure access to testing.
“We’re doing those things,” she said. They are providing testing every day, although numbers are low, and are offering outreach services.
Outside a comfort zone
“I think through all of this, public health serves a critical role,” she said. “But usually we’re invisible and that’s kind of how we like it.”
However, there has been a disproportionate amount of attention placed on treatment of diseases instead of the more traditional public health focus on overall community health and wellbeing, she said.
But, now that the worst of the pandemic is over, “other things are being discussed,” she said. These include financial support for public health, strengthening the collection of timely data and accurate data, workforce recruitment and retention, and the changing of health-related laws and statutes to meet current needs.
Health committee provides vital service
Committee worked well with Health Department during pandemic
BY DALE HOGG
dhogg@gbtribune.com
A key part of the Barton County Health Department’s ongoing services, as well as its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is the Health Advisory Committee, Health Director Karen Winkelman said, addressing the County Commission meeting as the Board of Health Wednesday morning. She had the chance to introduce the board for some well deserved attention.
“I want to thank you for recognizing our advisory committee,” she said.
The committee was formed in 1987, she said. ”It was created because some of our grants required that we have an advisory committee on board to review current program policy objectives, to review the programs on an ongoing basis, and also to assess the future needs of the programs for Barton County.”
Members have to be Barton county citizens. No fewer than five of the maximum of nine can be from the allied medical field, with at least one being a physician and one from the animal health field.
The appointees serve two-year terms without compensation, and are appointed by the County Commission. They have one open position that terms at the end of this year.
In addition, “they have also been there with us through this pandemic,” Winkelman said. “They have no idea how much we relied on them for their support, guidance, maybe venting a little bit, and a few tears here and there.”
Only a few meetings had to be canceled over the past two years, she said due to their dedication. “I feel it’s so important that we needed that (communication) and we continue to need them moving forward.”
“Karen has said they couldn’t have done it without you,” District 2 Commissioner Barb Esfeld said.
“Thank you very much guys,” said Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3.
The members include:
• Brian Wellborn, who was not present Wednesday. His background is in finance and banking, and he currently is an officer with Peoples Bank and Trust.
• Krista Smith. She has a degree in physical therapy, and has worked in the school system for several years.
• Jan Watkins, who was not present. She has worked in the community as a nurse for 45 years and she retired in 2020. She continues to be very active in the community.
• Dr. William King. He has numerous postgraduate courses in obstetrics and gynecology and family planning throughout his 30-year career, and has provided family services at the Health Department for several years. He has been a member of the Great Bend community for 56 years.
• John Stettinger. He served as battalion chief and AEMT for the Great Bend Fire Department. He was there 40 years and retired. He currently works at the Barton County Sheriff’s Office in the Civil Process Division. He provides CPR training to department staff.
Through his church, he connected the department with the Convoy of Hope, a charitable group that provides goods and services for the needy.
• Dr. Mike Malone, who was not present. A veterinarian for 42 years, he has a degree in biology and microbiology. He has training and bioterrorism and in containing disease outbreaks.
• Dr. Perry Smith, the newest member. He’s retired from family practice after 40 plus years. He’s also provided family planning services for the department.
