Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER staff writer
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Robinson, who for five years has overseen the operations of the health departments in Montgomery, Pulaski, Giles and Floyd counties and Radford, worked her last day Wednesday. She plans to return to her native Jamaica for personal reasons, she said.
The district served almost 19,000 patients in fiscal year 1992-93, with more than 7,000 of those from Montgomery County, said accountant Cindy McDaniel. It had an operating budget of $2.8 million and a full-time staff of 80-85 people.
Robinson said there would be "no difference" in the service that individual patients receive.
In her place, Dr. Craig Smith, health director for the Mount Rogers Health District, has been named acting director.
He'll be aided by the existing three top managers in the New River district: administrative manager Isaac Staples, nursing manager Judy Williams, and environmental health manager Lowell Hartley. Smith plans to meet with management at least once every two weeks.
"We're going to do our best to provide the coverage that [patients] need and make sure that there are no gaps," said Smith, who oversees eight localities in his regular district.
"There will be a void without a full-time health director," said Williams, but "we hope that it will not affect what the public will feel."
Williams said Robinson was a visible figure on various committees, in helping form the New River AIDS Coalition and with her work at hospitals.
"From that view point she will be missed," Williams said.
From the viewpoint of public service, Williams said she looked forward to assistance from neighboring districts and noted that the valley was without a full-time director for almost a year before Robinson arrived, after the previous director retired.
Staples, who was attending a training session in Richmond Wednesday, was confident that the department will be able to carry on without Robinson.
"She's a very vital person in our district, [but] the district will move on without her," he said.
In the upcoming year, Staples said the district will be looking to expand its home health care and personal care programs, and its computerized-record generating patient care management system.
One of his first priorities, Smith said, will be to hire a nurse practitioner to boost coverage at area clinics.
He also will focus his attention on the simmering health care reform debate.
"There's just a lot happening in reform right now, and it's no time to be left without someone at the helm," he said. "We want to be in the game."
Robinson also sounded her interest in reform, although she was not worried that her absence would change how the valley's health programs are affected.
Of reform changes, she said, "It won't occur next year."
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