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Show July 26, 2001 by Mary Galbralth Hilltop Times staff IVeventing disease, protecting hearing and educating base personnel are all part of a Public Health office. for the Preventive Medicine (also known as the Communicable Disease Control and Community Health office), Food Safety and Sanitation, Occunine-pers- on Oosease Control, education part of Public Health's mission Preventive Medicine pational Health (see related story, page 12) and Hearing Conservation are the four offices that make up Public Health. Food Safety and Sanitation Inspecting food facilities Hill purchases from and meals ready to eat, looking into customer complaints lodged against the commissary and base restaurants, evaluating food facilities and providing food training, and keeping mosquitoes at bay are just a few of the Safety and Sanitation office responsibilities. Master Sgt. Donald Albaugh, NCOIC of Public Health, said inspecting food coming on to the base is just one of their responsibilities. "We decide if it's just a quality issue to let the receivers inspect the food, and if it's a problem, which is what we're really looking at, then they can call us and we go over and check." Albaugh said there are rarely wholesomeness problems, but complaints are followed up. "We do investigate customer complaints from people who purchase food from the commissary," he said. "Say you get a box of cereal and it has bugs in it We'll pull representatives from that cereal to sample the lot number, and if we find there's a problem we pull it all off the shelf and advertise to announce a recall." When the Air Force releases an "All Food Act," which means there's a questionable food in the inventory, the Food Safety and Sanitation Office is responsible for placing the item on medical hold until the command determines the product j J . 'j.-- ' h i non-milita- ry ' Keeping food on the store shelves isn't Pub- lic Health's only responsibility. If someone eats at a base facility and believes the food made them sick, they investigate. "A lot of times it's just an isolated incident where maybe one family gets sick and they think it's from a restaurant, but it turns out it was from a picnic they had," Albaugh said. "Because if nobody else on base gets sick, or nobody reports it, it's hard to investigate." To avoid illnesses, Public Health trains food facility supervisors during an annual session that brings them up to date on the FDA food Code. "We used to train every food handler on base, but now we're putting that responsibility on the manager or supervisor of the food facility," ,J Photos by Mary Galbraith Master Sgt. Donald Albaugh, above, talks with a food service worker during a regular inspection of base food facilities. The inspection ensures they maintain a sanitary cooking environment. Doug Pierson and Denlse Gordan discuss a case file at Public Health's Preventive Medicine office at the Base Clinic. Pierson is responsible for tracking tuberculo sis and sexually transmitted disease outbreaks on base, animal bites, hospital employees' health and medical Intelligence briefings. SS.m I x. v " he said. Albaugh said all base dining facilities are safe and comply with regulations, but there is a standout. The Hillcrest Dining Facility is just awesome," he said. "It's very clean. They're very consci- entious and take a lot pride. Alot of facilities are getting by with a satisfactory evaluation. But the Hillcrest gets excellent ratings all the time because The Preventive Medicine of fice handles everything from animal bites and sexually transmitted diseases to fetal protection. Deployment Preventive Medicine educates personnel traveling overseas. In locations like Saudi Arabia there are several arthropod-transmittediseases as well as threats from spiders, snakes and scorpions. "Anybody deploying overseas needs to talk to us," Albaugh said. "We give a medical intelligence briefing to anybody who's going to an overseas location where there's not a fixed base. We brief them on the environment, the weather and what to expect as far as extreme temperatures; communicable diseases and how to protect yourself, and protecting yourself from food and water borne illness and STDs." Disease prevention locally is also a concern. Albaugh said many females with sexually transmitted diseases are unaware they have a problem. When left untreated, STDs can cause scar tissue to build up and pelvic inflammatory disease, which can result in infertility problems. When an individual tests positive for a STD, Albaugh said they educate that person to change the behavior. Active duty members who test positive for STDs must name their contacts to prevent the spread. If the members had partners, the county health department is notid whole-somene- ss is safe. where we're medically concerned about it If anything it's a nuisance." "People are helping them breed. Prevent any standing water like wading pools, buckets anything that's going to collect stagnant water will cause mosquitoes to breed, including over watering your lawn, tree holes." they go above and beyond what's expected." Public facility surveillance also keeps facilities like home day care homes safe. 'We have to make sure that ifs a safe and healthy environment for children," Albaugh said. "We inspect those homes and approve them before they get their license and then periodically to make sure that they're keeping up with the standard." Albaugh said providers receive notice before the initial certification inspection, but subsequent inspections are random with no warning like all other public facility inspections. Facilities ranging from the base gym and Youth Center to the barber and beauty shops are subject to the random inspections. "Any place where the base population is going to assemble we make sure it's a safe environment," he said. "We have checklists for every type of facility." The medical entomology office conducts surd veillance to make sure no pests are on the base. Mosquitoes and ticks are the primary concern. Public Health works with Civil Engineering and the Davis County Mosquito Abatement Center. He said Public Health's primary responsibility is education on how to prevent mosquito and tick bites. "We don't have a mosquito problem to the point disease-infeste- fied. STDs aren't the only diseases health professionals are working to reduce and treat. Tuberculosis and hepatitis are both on the rise. Public Health is responsible for ensuring medical unit employee health and safety. "Everybody who works at a medical facility must through us," Albaugh said. "We make sure they have all their immunizations. People who work with body fluids need to have an HIV test every year, a hepatitis B vaccination, chicken pox, a current flu shot, MMR all your childhood diseases. We also have the needle stick program. If anyone is stuck with a needle or surgical blade that's been used on somebody else we have to monitor both the patient and the worker to make sure nothing was transmitted." Occupational hazards don't stop with medical personnel. Industrial shops on base are tracked to protect expectant moms and their babies through the Fetal Protection Program. Once a worker is pregnant, Bioengineering investigates the shop to ensure it's a healthy environment. Hearing conservation is also stressed in public health classes, see related story on page 12. Albaugh said the variety of fields covered by Public Health can be overwhelming, but he's glad he comes to a job where, "There's something different everyday." Workplace 'illness' stoppable with preventive medicine by Mary Galbraith Hilltop Times staff Not all workplace illnesses are accompanied by a runny nose or e symptoms. illness" is the term In fact, "occupational-relate- d used to describe injuries like cumulative trauma disorders that occur over more than one workday or shift (while an occupational-relate- d injury occurs during a single day or shift) . flu-tik- It's not just office workers spending time at a computer keyboard who risk repetitive motion injuries. Personnel working with sheet metal and screwing in nuts and bolts are also at risk because of repetitive movements over prolonged periods. 'Tarts are exchangeable they can be upgraded and modified. We can't modify our body. People are a finite resource," Karen Rodriguez,' a registered nurse and contract case manager in the Public Health office, said. ; ; Dr. Loren Lewis, the medical director at Occupational Medicine, said while Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the most common injury, he also sees a significant amount of shoulder injuries, tendinitis, back and elbow pain. He said while some injuries are difficult to avoid, with preventive medicine others are stoppable. ; "There are ergonomic principles that relate to work. The more they can do to understand those principles and why these things happen, the more people can do to improve their own situation," he said. "How those things apply to what they do to a great extent can help them avoid having problems just by going back and modifying how they do things." illd If a person thinks they have a to is the first ness, Occupational step reporting Medicine Services where a physician or physician's assistant conducts an assessment If the medical professional suspects the illness is paperwork is filled out, and submitted to Public Health. Public Health begins a case file and submits paperwork to Bioenvironmental Engineering Services for a workplace evaluation. "It's a team effort to reduce or prevent occu- " v work-relate- work-relate- d, pationally related illnesses involving Occupational Medicine Services, Public Health, Bioenvironmental Engineering Services, Light Duty Monitors and Workers' Compensation," Nova McNabb, the Occupational Health nurse educator, said. Medical providers determine during the assessment whether the worker should or should not be placed on restricted duty . Public Health is also responsible for OSHA record keeping, which includes tracking individuals with an occupational-related illness who're placed on restricted duty. "We keep tabs on all of the restrictive duty, commonly known as limited or light duty," McNabb said, "so if a physician instructs an employee to return to the clinic in 30 days and they fail to report then they'll be contacted. I've got two caseworkers that keep records of personnel placed on restricted duty. They contact the employee and ask the employee to return to the clinic as previously instructed. Sometimes it's necessary to contact the supervisor when an employee can't be contacted." If an illness or injury requires referral, the employee can select a physician within that specialization. Public Health will make the appointment for the employee and provide initial paperwork to take to the referred physician. From that point on, the employee deals directly with the Workers' Compensation Office in Bldg. 1245, for paperwork associated with the case. If Public Health determines there's an upward trend in occupational-relateillnesses in an organization, McNabb said they ask the supervisor to schedule employees for an ergonomics course. and making a few minor adjustments can make all the difference without affecting productivity, according to Lewis. "They may just need to take abreak. Instead of doing something persistently for long periods of time they may be able to do some other type of activity or alternate work," he said. Doing the same thing for prolonged periods of time is the biggest risk factor for repetitive d . Photo by Senior Airman Russ Martin Primo Delgado, right, begins the disassembly procedure for the main landing gear by removing clamps, while Dennis Guse removes the hydraulic lines. Workers who complete repetitive tasks are at risk for developing occupational illnesses like carpal tunnel syndrome. Both men are wearing safety glasses to prevent C-- 5 eye injuries. injuries, Lewis added noting the sooner it's addressed the better. "In a lot of cases there can be changes made in how they do things or that will keep things from getting worse to the point where they need to be referred or they'll need specific medical care or surgery," he said. "And (if it's treated early) in all likelihood they can get back to their normal job and it won't progress any further." Louis said an ergonomic working group and other training opportunities and resources are available for base personnel. "We have brochures that we can hand out and we can talk to people individually about how they can modify their activities," he said. "Even though this information has been around, we still hear from people who didn't have any idea (they could prevent these injuries)." Ergonomic training provides an overview of cumulative trauma disorders, analyzing jobs for indicators of the disorders, as well as issues related to posture. Public Health will provide the training for supervisors, administrative and industrial workers. But in many cases supervisors must coordinate with organizational trainers to enroll in classes. Carolyn Bronson, employee relations specialist, is one of four claims adjusters working in a hectic environment to get traumatic injury claims run through the system at the base Workers' Compensation office. "Last year alone we had close to 960 cases that came through and those were just cases that we set up," she said. "That means that probably double to that amount came in." Each adjuster has more than 3,000 active files they track and Bronson estimates they each calls per day. And the office receive between inherited almost 10,000 open cases from just McClellan AFB, Calif. "When a traumatic injury claim is filed here, the office has five days to process that form and send it to the federal Workers' Compensation See Illness, page 12 20-3- 0 |