Layoffs, budget cuts don't surprise DuPage health department

The loss of 69 positions and $2.2 million from the DuPage County Health Department's budget isn't as dire as it sounds.

Director Maureen McHugh said the staff and funding cuts were the culmination of a four-year project to streamline services in the department. The fact that most county departments are dealing with budget crunches brought on by the lagging economy was just fortuitous, she said.

"Our timing couldn't be more perfect," she said.

While most of the job cuts really involve vacant positions, 29 staffed posts will be eliminated by Dec. 1. Two people have retired and 15 jobs are being transferred to an outside agency, leaving 12 positions that remain to be eliminated, McHugh said.

The health department will repost dozens of jobs in its community health division as well as its emergency and disease control division under a new operating structure. McHugh said current employees will have to reapply for those new, though fewer, positions.

No staffing was cut from the environmental health or mental health divisions.

McHugh said the new structure will allow the health department to do more with less staffing and money. In the past, residents scheduling visits would have to specify what treatments they were seeking. Now, patients get a full work-up instead of having to make five appointments for five issues, McHugh said.

"We'll have the same clinician doing multiple things," she said.

McHugh said the goal of the reorganization was to have the department operate within its means. Four years ago, the health department was taking in $22 million worth of taxes, but it was only allowed to levy $17 million. The supplemental tax dollars came from the county's coffers, she said. Now, the department isn't receiving additional funds.

County board member and health department board President Linda Kurzawa said the important aspect of the reorganization was to maintain services.

"This doesn't mean somebody isn't going to get service," she said. "We have to find a better way to deliver those services and we did."

The county board has until Dec. 1 to approve an overall budget, which includes the health department.