It is the health care problem created by HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital and Prevea Health closing down. This issue could seriously affect the Human Services Dept. budget which affects the entire County budget. It will be addressed by recognizing all of the health care issues and how they will affect the services that the County can provide. The number of mental health cases that are required to be addressed could be large. This would be at County expense. The County could be helped by another organization picking up the program being shut down. It could also affect the nursing staff if their house calls and in office visits are increased.

The affect on the other County Departments such as the Sheriff’s Department as a result of the Human Services issues. This will affect the entire County budget and since County’s cannot increase spending above the budget without borrowing or going to a referendum, a problem exists. There will be a need to monitor expenses in all of the other departments. Adjusting staffing as necessary and adjusting program implementation as necessary will need to be done. Solutions will also depend on how the hospital needs are addressed by other medical facilities, the City and the State.

It is difficult to maintain a competitive salary schedule for current and proposed employees. It is difficult to find quality people to fill the needed positions. This would require raising the wage scale, but that would be difficult with the problems anticipated with the hospital closing.

The Human Services Department and the Sheriff’s Department budget are very difficult to address under normal circumstances, but more difficult with the hospital situation. The Sheriff’s Department has been having an increased drug and alcohol related issues and needs to increase the capacity of booking space and staff. It is also working with Administration and the Court System on creating a jail deflection program. This would be intended to address the problem of continued court involvement. These programs would need to be placed on a lower priority. Since the Human Services Department is largely funded by the State to conduct State programs, the ability to diminish non-hospital related programs would be very difficult.

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