
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994                   TAG: 9405310156
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALLEGHANY, ROANOKE HEALTH DISTRICTS MAY BE COMBINED

At the request of the Virginia Department of Health, regional health administrators are looking into the possibility of merging Roanoke's Health Department with the seven-member Alleghany Health District.

Dr. Molly Rutledge already oversees both districts as director of the Alleghany region and acting director of the Roanoke Health Department. She said she was asked in January, following the departure of the Roanoke Health Department's director, Dr. Donald Stern, to study the idea of combining the two.

"Reinventing government is nothing new," she said, emphasizing that she had not decided whether to recommend consolidation. "We're looking at possibilities. We don't even have a proposal yet."

The Alleghany Health District includes Covington, Clifton Forge, Salem and the counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke. The Roanoke and Alleghany districts together employ more than 160 full-time staff members.

Combining the two districts should not result in job losses, Rutledge said. "We've been assured that would not be necessary."

Eugene Clarke, director of community health services for the western part of the state, said a 1987 study on regionalizing health districts recommended the Roanoke and Alleghany districts be considered for consolidation.

"The one thing unique about Alleghany is that Roanoke is completely surrounded" by it, he said.

Rutledge said the decision would hinge on whether consolidation would provide better public health services.

"We're looking for more efficient ways to deliver services," she said.

For example, both districts run clinics for sexually transmitted diseases, but neither is fully utilized, Rutledge said. If they consolidate, they could run one clinic in a strategic location and use fewer staff members. The spare staff could be used elsewhere.

"That's the perspective that we're coming at this from," she said.

Rutledge said she and her staff were consulting with staff from the state Department of Health to determine how consolidation might work. It could be several months before the state health commissioner reaches a decision.

If she decides to recommend the merger, Rutledge said, she will establish some framework for public comment.

by CNB