Williamson County and Cities Health District

Williamson County and Cities Health District

Written by Mark Collins Sunday, 07 October 2007

WCCHD addresses many of residents’ health issues

Not many people know what the Williamson County and Cities Health District does, even though it has been around for almost 20 years.

“Our job as a health district is to protect and promote the health of the people of Williamson County,” said WCCHD Public Information Director Gyl Wadge. “A lot of those programs might be client based, but we do things every day to help everyone.”

Wadge is talking about daily services, which specifically translate into restaurant inspections, food handler classes, enforcing sewage facility regulations, floodplain regulations and so on. All are an effort to keep Williamson County residents healthy.

Of all the services WCCHD provides, the traditional public health clinic is at the core of it. Clinics are located in Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown and Taylor. They consist of registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and nurse practitioners who are in regular contact with doctors to go over charts and provide more guidance.

In addition, WCCHD offers many client-based programs that range from data collection and analysis to prenatal care and nutrition.

“It’s kind of like when people ask you who your favorite child is,” Wadge said of the individual programs. “They’re all just so important for the health of the community, and they’re all kind of different.”

One program Wadge said goes underused is Women, Infants and Children and Community Nutrition. The federally funded program teaches proper nutrition for pregnant and breastfeeding women and provides breastfeeding support and food vouchers for mothers and children under 5.

WCCHD will also never turn down anyone who comes into one of its clinics for a vaccination.

“We would like to have 100-percent enrollment of those who are eligible, and we’d love a 100-percent immunization rate for kiddos,” Wadge said.

WCCHD has also done extensive data gathering. The Planning and Public Information department surveys the community about behavioral risks and makes the information publicly available.

Even though WCCHD acts as an umbrella administration for many different programs, communication among those entities is still a necessity, Wadge said. Since all the programs are already working together, they have an advantage over health departments.

Who is a member?

When WCCHD was reorganized as a separate health district, as opposed to a county department in 1989, the only cities in Williamson County with enough population to help pay for WCCHD funding were Taylor, Georgetown, Cedar Park and Round Rock. Since city governments fund WCCHD on a per capita basis and the population is growing, costs were also rising, which led the four current members to wonder why other cities in the county weren’t also members. Earlier this year former director Karen Wilson and the four city managers visited each city in Williamson County to encourage them to join.

As of Oct. 1, Liberty Hill and Hutto had voted to join. Granger, Florence, Bartlett and Thrall have not yet reached a decision. Leander voted to contribute $10,000, but opted not to join. Weir and Jarrell also declined to join the health district.

The programs that make up the WCCHD

Administration

• Supports all WCCHD functions
• Services include: accounting, budgeting, personnel/payroll, purchasing and records management

Community Health Education and Social Services

• Connects county residents to health services
• Provides medical resources information for the uninsured and underinsured
• Provides eligibility screening for medical assistance programs
• Provides education and case management for pregnant women and diabetics

Environmental Health Services

• Enforces On-Site Sewage Facilities (OSSF) regulations
• Administers county floodplain regulations
• Conducts subdivision reviews
• Conducts food service establishment inspections
• Provides food handler classes

Emergency Preparedness and Response

• Collaborates with fire, police and EMS to plan responses to public health emergencies

Planning and Public Information

• Performs public health data collection, analysis and dissemination
• Coordinates volunteers
• Organizes public information functions and strategic planning

Public Health Nursing (Clinic health care)

• Provides prenatal care and referral
• Provides immunizations for children and adults
• Performs sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment
• Performs Tuberculosis testing and treatment

Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Community Nutrition

• Provides nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and food vouchers to pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants and children under 5 years old
• Administers the Community Gardening Program
• Teaches healthy cooking classes