Just four months remain before La Plata and Archuleta counties will assume responsibility for public health services in their respective jurisdictions.
The disharmonious breakup of San Juan Basin Public Health – the agency that has served the two-county district for 75 years – followed a growing realization that one health district could not properly serve the two counties, which differ in nature.
The divorce has elicited some concerns, especially regarding the breadth of service offered in Archuleta County.
But with just a third of the year remaining, Archuleta County officials say they are primed for slow but certain success.
“I'm here to tell you, we're going to pull it off – and not just a little – we're going to pull this thing off,” Archuleta County Commissioner Warren Brown said. “We're going to provide our community customized … service in the health department that we've not had before.”
The Archuleta County Public Health Department will offer most of the same services currently available in Pagosa Springs through SJBPH and will initially have nine staff members, although officials expect it to grow to 12-15 employees.
The county has already passed several of the major milestones, the most notable of which was bringing on Ashley Wilson in May to lead the department. Wilson and the county are now in the process of hiring several key officials.
The two counties have undergone slightly different orders of operations.
La Plata County assembled a transitional board of health in February, but did not hire a director until August. The director selected will serve as a contractor in an interim capacity.
Archuleta County, in contrast, assembled a temporary board to assist in selecting a director, but disbanded that board this month. Now that a director has been selected, the county will move to assemble a permanent board that will take over governing the new department on Jan. 1, 2024.
Wilson said that she anticipates most of the services currently offered by SJBPH will remain available to Archuleta County residents. There may be a temporary discontinuation of clinical services, which are already only offered on a weekly basis in Pagosa Springs.
“Our hope is that within the first part of the year, more services will be available as we get staff trained and are able to expand on what's been available here in the recent years,” Wilson said.
Like La Plata County, the Archuleta County department’s leadership is trying to open job opportunities sooner rather than later so that SJBPH employees have an opportunity to apply for similar positions at the new departments.
Brown said that the recent drama surrounding emergency compensation payments has not reflected onto the SJBPH employees.
Rather, the commissioner said the realizations once again highlighted some of the communication issues that led to the dissolution in the first place.
“It reaffirms that government has not earned trust of the constituents,” he said
Leadership at both counties have shown an interest in recruiting current SJBPH employees, putting them in what Brown called “healthy competition” with one another.
In an effort to increase candidate recruitment, Archuleta County will begin to offer insurance benefits to part-time employees, something La Plata County does not offer.
“We're going to be tickled with anyone that is qualified that comes from San Juan Basin (Public) Health that wants to work at Archuleta County,” Brown said. “A lot of times it's a lifestyle or a cultural decision. Culturally, we're different than La Plata County. We're not better, we're not worse – we're just different.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
