Contributors
Recent Posts
- Healthcare Providers Must Remain Vigilant with ADA Service Animal Requirements
- The Ten Year Wait is Over: HRSA Releases 340B Dispute Resolution Final Rule
- HHS Final Rules Modernize the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute to Usher in Value-Based Care
- The CDC’s New Definition of “Close Contact”: What You Need To Know
- U.S. Department of Labor Issues Revised Regulations Implementing FFCRA Leaves Following New York Court’s Decision
- Michigan Reinstitutes Pre-COVID Scope of Practice, Licensure, and Liability Standards
- DHHS Issues Terms and Conditions for Relief Funds
- Nursing Home Compliance Under the COVID-19 Microscope
- OCR Guidance During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
- Michigan Governor’s Executive Order 2020-30 Expands Health Care Professionals’ Scope of Practice and Lifts Certain Licensure Restrictions
Related Practices
- Adoption & Assisted Reproductive Technology
- Ambulatory Care Providers
- Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Creditors' Rights
- Bioethics & End-of-Life Care
- Biotechnology and Life Science
- Cannabis Law
- Government Investigations and Corporate Compliance
- Health Care
- Health Care Administrative Law & Regulatory Appeals
- HIPAA—Health Information Privacy & Security
- Hospitals and Health Care Systems
- Long-Term & Post-Acute Care Providers
- Nonprofits & Tax-Exempt Organizations
- Pharmacies, DEA & Robinson-Patman/340B Drug Programs
- Physicians, Dentists and Non-Physician Practitioners
Related Industries
A Critical Resource: Get to Know Your Local Health Department
Administrative and clinical staff in nursing facilities around the country are under tremendous stress trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Facilities are getting barraged from all sides with information from experts and questions from residents and their families. In this period of uncertainty, do not overlook an important ally and resource right in your backyard—your local health department. The medical director at your health department is the epidemiology expert in your community, and is an invaluable resource for how pubic health issues are best addressed in your specific community, with your specific population.
Using guidance from your local health department to formulate your response to the COVID-19 pandemic, lends credibility and authority to your response. This can be critical with measures that are difficult for staff or residents to accept, such as limiting or restricting visitation and or screening staff for infection. Let staff, residents, families and the community know that you are following the health department’s recommendations when you communicate these difficult policy and procedure changes. Additionally, having the support of the local health department may be useful if your response approach is challenged during a survey.
Developing a good working relationship with health department officials will pay off down the road, too, when the next public health issue arises in your community or facility. Public health issues, from drinking water safety to immunizations, often develop quickly. When they do, you will be glad you have already established a strong working relationship with the experts at your local health department.
Click here for contact information for your local health department in Michigan.
To sign up for Dykema’s Health Care Blog e-mail updates, please click here.