What they doThese are among the services provided by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department:• Emergency preparedness: Coordinates planning and response efforts related to a public health disaster or emergency• Vital records: Maintains birth and death certificates• HIV case management: Provides support to patients with HIV-AIDS• Children special services: Ensures children with special medical needs receive appropriate, comprehensive and timely services• Immunizations: Provides immunizations for infants, children and adolescents and adult immunizations at the Overseas Travel/Adults Clinic• STD clinic: Tests and treats sexually transmitted diseases• WIC nutritional supplement program: Supplemental nutrition program for women who are pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding infants and children up to age 5• Harriet Tubman program: A co-ed teen pregnancy postponement and life skills attainment program that targets teen residents of the Harriet Tubman Development• Food/general sanitation: Inspects restaurants, hotels and motels, public swimming pools, day care/camps, and tattoo establishments. Investigates general sanitation complaints• Rabies program: Controls the spread of rabies within Hamilton CountySource: Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department
When the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department does its job, the results are measured by what doesn’t happen, administrator Becky Barnes says.
No one applauds when they don’t get sick after eating out, when their babies get extra nutrition or their moms and dads don’t come down with the flu.
But Barnes said such services and others might be reduced or lost altogether if the county cuts the department’s funding in the coming budget year.
That could happen because a 45-year-old sales-tax agreement between Chattanooga and Hamilton County is about to expire. About $8.8 million of the health department’s $21 million budget comes from that agreement.