What next for the Tulsa City-County Health Department

Wednesday, February 13th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa County voters turned down a property tax hike Tuesday that would have provided new money for the health department. 62% of voters rejected the tax, which would have paid for bio-terrorism training and better surveillance of disease outbreaks.

News on Six reporter Emory Bryan explains what is next for the health department. Since September 11th - the health department has shifted people and money from the things they've always done to things they might do during a terrorist attack of diseases. The department hoped taxpayers would vote for a special tax to pay for it - but the voters said no.

The Tulsa City-County Health Department still does routine testing for diseases - in this lab - those that are sexually transmitted. What they find here is of concern to individuals - but increasingly, the health department worries they should be looking for diseases that once released by a terrorist, could rapidly spread through the community. Janice Sheehan RN, Tulsa City-County Health Department: "Because we have to address these terrorist things, we have to address the most prevalent thing we have in front of us right now."

When all those anthrax scares popped up last October, the Health Department picked up the suspicious items - but had to drive it to Oklahoma City for testing - that's because their labs in Tulsa aren't sophisticated enough for the job. A property tax increase would have paid for better lab equipment that the health department says would ultimately save lives - with or without a terrorist attack. "We need to mobilize our staff to answer the needs of the community whatever that may be, and we found a lot of shortfalls. We're not only short on manpower, but on reserves of information.â€

And information may be as important as the microscope to the health department of the future. In one office at the health department, computers symptoms of people who visit hospital emergency rooms. With more money - they wanted to expand their system to track reports from private clinics - even over the counter medications sold at drug stores - to catch the first signs of an outbreak - the more likely common flu - or the kinds of anthrax cases that went undetected for days in Washington DC. Craig Gemmill, Tulsa City County Health Department: "One case maybe not, but several cases like in Washington DC or New York, we would have started asking questions, why is this happening?"

The health department says to answer the threat of terrorism - they'll have to make cuts in less critical areas. An administrator says they're unlikely to go back to voters for a property tax increase - and instead will appeal to state and federal Homeland Security offices for help.