By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The Western Racine County Health Department – which provides public health services for many local municipalities, including the City and Town of Burlington, Dover, Norway, Raymond and Yorkville; villages of Waterford and Rochester – will close at the end of the year.
As a result, area local municipalities will be looking to establish a new health partnership by year’s end.
Aurora Healthcare recently announced that it would not renew its contract with WRCHD.
“It puts us in the position of finding a new city health department, along with the other seven jurisdictions that Aurora services,” said Burlington Mayor Bob Miller.
The public health services contract with WRCHD was due to be renewed at the end of this year.
Miller explained that Aurora’s attorney identified a conflict of interest for the public health department, which in addition to providing community health care programs and immunizations, also is a resource for potential disease outbreaks.
Among the potential problems would be Aurora personnel inspecting their own hospitals in case of an outbreak of illness.
Miller said the city had been serviced by Aurora for roughly 10 years.
“It may be, but then again, it may not be,” said Miller, who has begun looking into other providers. “At this point in time, I don’t know.”
Lisa Just, the president of the Burlington and Walworth Aurora markets, emailed a short statement Tuesday afternoon confirming the decision.
“Public health is responsible for monitoring many entities, including aspects of the local hospital,” she said. “The current model is the only one of its kind in the state and creates a conflict of interest.
“We have announced our intent to work with the communities and the state Division of Health to make a seamless transition to a new public health provider,” she added.
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