Northwest Georgia Public Health

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Two Floyd County Health Department
Employees Receive Coveted
Governor’s Award for
Excellence in Customer Service

For release: January 22, 2009
For more information: Logan Boss, 706-295-6649

Rome, GA: Two Floyd County Health Department staff members, Operations Support Coordinator Bobbie Pinson and Nutrition Program Manager Helen Judd, have won the coveted Governor's Award for Excellence in Customer Service. Six individual and two team winners were selected last year, the second of the Governor's Customer Service Awards, from among more than 636 nominations from 49 different state and local government agencies across Georgia.

"Part of making Georgia the best-managed state is improving customer service and recognizing those employees who serve as a shining example," said Governor Sonny Perdue. "These awards highlight exemplary employees and their commitment to changing processes and attitudes to provide faster, friendlier and easier service for the citizens of Georgia. These award recipients represent scores of others who have found ways to produce and measure results."

Among Ms. Pinson’s many customers are health department staff and the many vendors who work in and on the building, including public health, Floyd County, Georgia Technology Agency and private vendors. She also is the linkage for other programs that operate their clinics in the health department, such as the Free Clinic, the Dental Clinic at Floyd and the Floyd Board of Health Teen Center.

Additionally, she is responsible for all billing and information technology at the health department. According to health department Nurse Manager Pat Townley, Bobbie not only supervises staff, she’s one staff member I’d have to call indispensible, and I know her fellow employees feel that way about her also.”

Ms. Judd manages a program that has gained almost 1,000 new clients over the past five years, and over that time has had to replace the majority of her staff, worked alone without other nutritionists until she could locate, interview and hire associates, dealt with a high pregnancy rate in staff, yet continued to assure

clients were seen. “We currently have almost 3,800 clients in our WIC (Women, Infants, Children) program,” Townley says, “and Helen does the job, sick or well, and always stays in a cheerful mood.”

On January 29th, Judd, Pinson and Townley will attend a reception in honor of all the state’s award recipients, meet the governor and tour the capitol.

Flu Season Information

People recommended for vaccination during the 2008-09 flu season are:

Children aged 6 months up to their 19th birthday
Pregnant women
People 50 years of age and older
People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions
People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
People who live with or care for those at high risk for
complications from flu, including:

Health care workers
Household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu
Household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (these children are too young to be vaccinated)

Q: Who Should Not Be Vaccinated?
A: Some people should not be vaccinated without first consulting a physician. They include:

People who have a severe allergy to chicken eggs.
People who have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccination in the past.
People who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks of getting an influenza vaccine previously.
Children less than 6 months of age (influenza vaccine is not licensed for use in this age group).
People who have a moderate or severe illness with a fever should wait to get vaccinated until their symptoms lessen.

If you have questions about whether you should get a flu vaccine, consult your health-care provider.

Q: Will the flu shot make me sick?
A: No. You cannot get the flu (or any other illness) from the flu shot. If you get the flu immediately after getting a flu shot, you probably contracted it before getting the shot or during the two week period necessary for your body to build up an immunity.

How Does Seasonal Flu Differ From Pandemic Flu?

Seasonal Flu	Pandemic Flu
Outbreaks follow predictable seasonal patterns; occurs annually, usually in winter, in temperate climates	Occurs rarely (three times in 20th century - last in 1968)
Usually some immunity built up from previous exposure	No previous exposure; little or no pre-existing immunity
Healthy adults usually not at risk for serious complications; the very young, the elderly and those with certain underlying health conditions at increased risk for serious complications	Healthy people may be at increased risk for serious complications
Health systems can usually meet public and patient needs	Health systems may be overwhelmed
Vaccine developed based on known flu strains and available for annual flu season	Vaccine probably would not be available in the early stages of a pandemic
Adequate supplies of antivirals are usually available	Effective antivirals may be in limited supply
Average U.S. deaths approximately 36,000/yr	Number of deaths could be quite high (e.g., U.S. 1918 death toll approximately 675,000)
Symptoms: fever, cough, runny nose, muscle pain. Deaths often caused by complications, such as pneumonia.	Symptoms may be more severe and complications more frequent
Generally causes modest impact on society (e.g., some school closing, encouragement of people who are sick to stay home)	May cause major impact on society (e.g. widespread restrictions on travel, closings of schools and businesses, cancellation of large public gatherings)
Manageable impact on domestic and world economy	Potential for severe impact on domestic and world economy

Chart courtesy of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Here you'll find news releases pertaining to public health matters that concern Floyd County. News releases pertaining to the 10-County Northwest Georgia Public Health district can be found in the Newsroom.

Northwest Georgia Public Health