Wake County Human Services – Public Health and Environmental Health Divisions: Engaging the Board of Health in a Mock Site Visit
According to Pendora Lundy, AAC:
The Wake County Health Department solicited help from our Board of Health members to conduct a mock site visit of our seven facilities prior to our fall 2019 site visit. To help prepare for the mock site visit, I developed a workbook to facilitate the walkthroughs. The workbook consisted of the visual observations worksheet which described what the site visitors will be looking for, any findings from the previous site visit to ensure that improvements were implemented, a list of possible questions that were found in the HDSAI Interpretation Document, and a tour schedule. The tour schedule dictated who the tour guides would be, the note takers, General Services Administration representatives and the location of our seven sites. The board members came with a vast knowledge of their county and different subject matter knowledge and passions as it pertained to labs, water quality, customer service, etc. Thanks to the Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology (SPICE) for offering the free Environmental Assessment video, we viewed the video prior to the mock visit, and it allowed us to look through a different lens as we walked through our clinics, labs and pharmacy. After the walkthroughs were completed, we received feedback from the Board members, which I compiled then debriefed with all our facility managers on the recommended improvements. Two months later, I conducted a smaller scaled mock site visit follow up to ensure implementation of recommended changes.
Conducting the mock site visit allowed us to feel better prepared for our actual site visit. In addition, it provided an opportunity for relationship building between the board members and staff. It also provided board members with a different view of our health department and allowed them to see first-hand some of the changes that had been proposed at board meetings over the previous years.
For more information contact Pendora Lundy at Pendora.Lundy@wakegov.com