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City health department's food service program off probation
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County health officials are focusing on birth spacing and establishing support groups for pregnant women as ways to improve infant-mortality rates.
Mahoning County is one of nine urban centers that make up the Ohio Equity Institute, the goal of which is to improve the infant- mortality rates in Ohio. The co-chairwomen of the local effort are Erin Bishop, interim commissioner of the Youngstown City Health District, and Patricia Sweeney, commissioner of the Mahoning County District Board of Health.
Ohio has the worst black infant-mortality rate in the nation and ranks 47th for all births, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Reporting on the local program at Monday’s city health board meeting, Bishop said health experts recommend that women not get pregnant sooner than 18 months after delivery.
She said the Mahoning Equity Committee first plans to conduct a survey of area hospitals and doctors to determine to what degree they are talking to women about birth spacing and long-acting reversible contraceptives.
The city health board accepted the resignation of Felicia Alexander as director of the Youngstown Office of Minority Health, effective Sept. 19.
Bishop said the position will be filled as soon as possible because the local health department has a contract to provide services with the Ohio Commission on Minority Health.
In other action, the board appointed Tara Cioffi to the combined position of director of the air pollution and environmental divisions. Cioffi, who has been interim head of the divisions, will be paid $67,950 annually.
Also, Bishop reported that the department’s food- service program has been taken off a one-year probation after a re-evaluation in July and August by the Ohio Department of Health’s Environmental Bureau.
In addition to giving the food service division good marks, the ODH recommended that two additional sanitarians be added. Currently, the department has two sanitarians to handle 600 food establishments, 75 percent of which require two inspections per year.