We noted earlier this month that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty planned to overhaul the D.C. Department of Health in his first 100 days, and the Examiner reports that this is well under way. Earlier this week the pyramid underneath reappointed Director Gregg Pane got a little narrower, as the eleven agencies were consolidated into seven, and a number of senior deputies and chiefs of staff were let go.
Notably, pregnancy prevention and care and school health programs will be consolidated into the new Maternal and Primary Care Administration. On Fenty’s now neglected e-Transition blog, a report was posted in early December that signaled pre-natal health care would be a major focus of the DoH overhaul. Dr. Michael Zeilinger, a USAID chief, highlighted D.C.’s alarming infant mortality rate, well above the national average, and painfully noted that Ward 7’s rate rivals that of some third world countries. We assume this means Fenty plans to make maternity health care a major priority, but there’s no information yet on how the agency plans to go about dealing with this situation. Compiling some updated statistics might be a good start, since the report footnotes that the most current numbers are almost five years old.
The HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA, formerly the Administration for HIV Policy and Programs, or AHPP) and the Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration will be freed from their grant reviewing responsibilities, as that will be moved into an agency of its own. We noted earlier that Fenty decided not to reappoint former AHPP Director Marsha Martin, but as the 100 days tick by and the agency is completely reworked, a new director has yet to be named. Director Pane continues to do extra-duty as its interim director, though his attentions must be regrettably stretched by now.
David Mariner, the blogger at the comprehensive Fight HIV in DC, laments Pane’s seeming disinterest and/or lack of time to invest in reworking one of the most vital agencies within DoH — in a region that still finds infection rates at ten times the national average. Mariner reports that Pane has been absent at recent community meetings and is either holding up or failing to process applications for the HIV Prevention Community Planning Group (CPG), with some people waiting over six months now to find out if they can serve.
