DEPARTMENT: Health
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Colleen M. Bridger, MPH, PhD
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Ratifying the submission of a grant application and authorizing the acceptance of funds from the Texas Department of State Health Services for the STD Staff Support Program grant
SUMMARY:
This ordinance ratifies the submission of a grant application and authorizes the acceptance of funds from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) for the STD Staff Support Program grant. This ordinance also authorizes a personnel complement through the addition of four full-time positions (FTEs).
Furthermore this ordinance authorizes the Director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) to initiate, negotiate, and execute any and all necessary documents to effectuate the acceptance of the referenced grant funds, to include executing a contract amendment pertaining to this contract, and to execute additional contract amendments pertaining to this contract to include amendments which will provide supplemental grant funds to the grant by the funding agency in an amount up to 20% of the total amount awarded to the grant to include the funds awarded under this ordinance.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Metro Health receives an award from the DSHS through the STD Staff Support Program grant annually. This grant and provides disease investigation and counseling to control and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV, Gonorrhea, and Chlamydia. Through the STD Staff Support Program grant, Metro Health’s STD/HIV Prevention Program is able to provide diagnosis, treatment, and partner notification services to residents in San Antonio and Bexar County.
On April 19, 2018, City Council approved the addition of three (3) FTEs to the personnel complement associated with the 2018 term of the STD Staff Support grant bringing the total existing personnel complement to 16 positions. These three (3) positions included two (2) Management Analyst positions and one (1) Community Services Specialist position to facilitate the duties associated with additional funding received during the 2018 grant term.
With this new grant award from DSHS for the 2019 grant period, Metro Health intends on continuing to fund these three critical FTE positions in order to meet the additional contract requirements established by the DSHS in the Department's Scope of Work. Additionally, Metro Health has identified the need to increase the staffing complement by an additional four (4) FTEs for the 2019 grant period to include an Administrative Associate, Administrative Assistant I, Administrative Assistant II and Management Analyst for a total of 20 FTE’s.
These additional positions are needed to address DSHS' requirement to enter all laboratory reports received from both internal and external labs. The program processed and investigated 33,257 morbidity reports for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV from January 1, 2017 - October 31, 2018. Three of the four existing positions were staffed with temporary employees performing the surveillance duties necessary for processing the labs; however, the temporary positions were eliminated and the state provided funds to support creating full time positions to prevent a gap in services to the community.
Additionally, due to the increase of congenital syphilis in Bexar County, San Antonio was chosen to receive additional funding to support a congenital syphilis fetal infant mortality review (FIMR). This project requires a full time position to manage the project; the management analyst position was requested for this purpose. The program received, processed and investigated 19,168 congenital reports from January 1, 2017 - December 31, 2017.
ISSUE:
Metro Health’s STD/HIV Prevention Program works to control and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by providing diagnostic, treatment and partner services to the public. Metro Health requests City Council ratify the submission of grant application documents and authorize the acceptance of funds from the DSHS for the STD Staff Support Program; furthermore, Metro Health requests City Council authorize a personnel complement. Metro Health proposes to continue using these funds to provide additional personnel in support of congenital syphilis, molecular HIV surveillance, and PrEP navigation services.
ALTERNATIVES:
Should City Council not ratify the submission of the grant application and authorize the acceptance of funds from DSHS for the STD Staff Support Program grant, the Department would not be able to provide services to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by providing diagnostic, treatment and partner services to the public.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This ordinance ratifies the submission of a grant application to the Texas Department of State Health Services for the STD Staff Support Program grant and authorizes the acceptance of a grant in the amount not to exceed $2,070,509.00 for the period of January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019. There is no General Fund match requirement with this grant.
This also authorizes a staff complement of 20 positions for providing diagnostic, treatment, and partner services to the public to control and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends City Council ratify the submission of the grant application, authorize the acceptance of the funds from DSHS for the STD Staff Support Program grant to include the execution of the grant documents, and authorize the addition of four FTE positions to the personnel complement for a total of (20) FTE’s.