Springfield will be the headquarters for a pilot program aimed at better responding to communicable diseases while allowing area health departments to continue their essential programming.

During Springfield City Council meeting November 4thcouncil voted unanimously to accept funding to build a nine-person team to serve 18 counties in southwest Missouri. The nearly $600,000 grant comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in communicable diseases, according to Jon Mooney, deputy director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

DHSS has one list of 120 infectious diseases which must be reported to the local health authority. These diseases are listed not only because of their contagiousness, but also because of the health outcomes. For example, the common cold is highly contagious, but very rarely has serious consequences. Other conditions such as whooping cough – whooping cough – can be unknowingly spread and have serious health complications for babies. And that can have far-reaching consequences in society at large.

“If I’m home sick multiple times for some of these illnesses, I’m not contributing to my community, I’m not going to work or I have to stay home with my kids who are sick,” Mooney said. “Anytime you talk about disease, these are the kind of nastier bugs, if you will, that we want to help control because it has far-reaching consequences not only for the individual but for society.”

The pilot program aims to “lift up” the entire public health system

Typically, when an infectious disease is reported, the local public health agency will initiate an investigation, contact tracing, and create strategies to prevent future spread. SGCHD has a team of professionals who can fully dedicate their jobs to it, but smaller departments may not be so lucky.

“A lot of times people who fight communicable diseases have to wear a lot of other hats. It could be a nurse who also provides WIC services who also provides community health education who also provides immunizations,” Mooney said. “They’re trying to juggle a lot of different things — and they’re doing a good job of that — but when there’s an uptick in disease in a community, it makes it very difficult to respond when you have one person who has multiple responsibilities.”

The pilot team hopes to prevent local departments from having to make the decision whether to deal with an infectious disease or call back critical health services. Although it may not be fully staffed at first, the team aims to have three nurses, three infectious disease specialists, a data analyst, a communications specialist and a coordinator. The pilot program will help them determine if that size group is too big or too small.

The regional team also provides a range of competencies that would not exist if the state simply put an epidemiologist in each public health area. For example, an epidemiologist cannot give shots and may not have expertise in data analysis or training in communication.

“It’s a more efficient model to help lift up the whole system and provide the kind of full range of services you would need, the full range of public health services you would need to respond,” Mooney said.

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This project has yet to be tested in Missouri, but Mooney says SGCHD is uniquely positioned to be the pilot thanks to its relationship with local governments, hospitals and DHSS. He also added that the funding approved at the City Council is not the full funding and that SGCHD is still exploring other options.

Mooney is eager to get the team set up and to see how the pilot program turns out — whether it will improve the entire system in a way that can be replicated across the state and whether it will encourage change in the public health system.

“(Will the program) help drive the public health system forward rather than continuing to rely on things the way we’ve been doing them for the past few years? It’s really trying to create this evolution of ‘Can we provide better support to our communities in a delivery model that also makes sense based on results and efficiency?'”

This article was originally published on the Springfield News-Leader: Springfield pilot program to help SWMO health officials amid outbreak