We live in a world where change is inevitable.
We’ve gone from dropping a nickel in a slot to make a telephone call to paying $1,000 for the latest cell phone model. Radio and newspapers were once the way we got our news. Now, we are deluged with facts and fancy from television, the internet, and social media. We are overwhelmed by choices.
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We understand that sooner or later everything will change.
In 1952, the young village of Park Forest started a caring and far-reaching health care service for its residents and those of 20 neighboring communities. The year it began a great outbreak of polio swept the country. Some 58,000 cases were reported and the epidemic killed more than 3,000 people. When the Salk polio vaccine became available, the lines were long as parents and children got their polio shots from the health department.
Managed by trained nurses, the department was on the cutting edge of community service. In 1968, its Nurses Plus health care service provided professional care before and after hospitalization. This included giving baths, managing medicines, personal hygiene and routine well-being checks. It was the only such program in the south suburbs.
It was comprehensive, it was caring and it cost lots of money to operate.
Despite its good work and great intentions, the village Health Department was never profitable and its yearly deficit kept increasing. According to figures supplied by the village, property taxes earmarked for the department increased from $295,000 in 2007 to $545,000 last year and is expected to top $600,000 for next year. While department expenses have increased year to year, revenues stagnate at about $200,000.
The harder the department worked, the harder it became to keep costs in line. Today, health insurance programs give the public more options. Today, a patient released from a hospital needing home care is likely to have the hospital provide its own service. Today, privately-owned and operated health care services are commonplace. Today, you can buy shampoo and get your flu shots at your local drug store instead of at the health department office in Village Hall.
Last week, the village Board of Trustees met to discuss the future of the department, village Mayor John Ostenburg said the $600,000 needed to run the department is a “tipping point.” It is one thing to fund core services such as fire, police and the parks and recreation departments, which are common to other communities. Park Forest, however, also contributes $570,000 to help support other non-core services such as, the Tennis and Health Club, Freedom Hall and the Aqua Center. That total for three operations is still less than the $600,000 needed just to support the health department.
Currently, the health department staff of seven full-time nurses serves about seven to 10 Medicare patients. There was talk of cutting the staff to two nurses.
The grim conclusion voiced by most of the board members was that the home health care service was currently too expensive to continue, but held out hope, as Ostenburg noted, that there has to be a way “to provide services to those who need them and still be cost effective.”
According to Margaret Lewis, the interim director of the department, her staff still serves the community, noting that in recent months some 300 people got their flu shots from the nurses; some 200 of which were for the high dose variety formulated the 65-and-over crowd.
“I hope we can find a way to keep some of our basic services, but then again, if we are left with only two nurses we may have to (close) the entire department by the end of June,” she said.
A final decision was expected to be voted on at the regular board meeting on Feb. 19.
During the meeting last week, Ostenburg noted that few other communities in the Chicago area offered such an extensive health program. He cited Rockford, Oak Park and Evanston as other examples. Like the three others, he said. The Park Forest Health Department was an “anomaly.”
The mayor did not define the word, but your dictionary may label it as an exception to the rule, a singular difference or even a blip on a screen.
Things come and things go. Everything may change for better or worse. But make no mistake. Everything changes.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance journalist and can be reached at [email protected]