WHEELING, W.Va. — The state Department of Health and Human Resources is working to fill vacancies before the department becomes three separate agencies in less than two months.
Interim Secretary Dr. Sherri Young provided a transition update to state lawmakers during interim committee meetings in Wheeling Sunday afternoon and said there are currently 171 vacancies within the DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health.
Young said this is concerning because most of those vacancies are nurses and social workers who are eligible for retirement within the next five years.
“We have 53 percent who will be eligible for retirement in 2029. You’re going to lose the institutional knowledge of folks, our nurses who have been there for 40 years. You’re going to lose that institutional knowledge of programs and how to make things work,” Young said.
While the DHHR is working to recruit employees to fill positions, Young said they’re also considering reorganizing whether or not to keep certain positions.
“Do we need the number of vacancies? Should we roll some of those positions up so we that get a stronger base instead of leaving the vacancies for such a long period of time? But also looking at maybe some of these things don’t need to be regional any longer because it is harder to fill positions not only across the state, but in several areas as well,” she said.
The DHHR is being split into three separate agencies on Jan. 1, 2024. Those agencies include the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Facilites.
Young will become the secretary of the Department of Health. Dr. Cynthia Persily was named the secretary of the Department of Human Services and Michael Caruso was named the secretary of the new Department of Health Facilities.
The transition comes after the state Legislature pushed ahead with a bill to reorganize DHHR, contending the restructuring would make it more accountable. DHHR had been under scrutiny over how the enormous agency handles a range of issues including foster care, child protective services and the developmentally disabled.
Persily, who also addressed lawmakers Sunday, said there are currently 40 vacancies within her new department that will be deemed “no longer necessary.”
“We will continue to be looking at positions each time someone leaves before we advertise, before we start to fill a position, using the same criteria: Is this a position we continue to need? Is there funding available for the position? Is there a better way to do the work?” Persily said.
Persily said they’re also evaluating the condition of DHHR facilities, particularly their office in downtown Beckley and the West Virginia Children’s Home in Elkins. She made a recent visit and determined conditions at each of those facilities were “unacceptable.”
“It was dirty. It had mold,” she said of the Beckley office. “It had carpets that had not been changed in 30 years despite a number of floods. It was just full unacceptable for our employees and our clients.”
The three new cabinet secretaries have been working to develop a memorandum of understanding to establish the Office of Shared Administration, which will provide shared services from centralized units such as finance, human resources management, management information services, and constituent services.
Under the reorganization, the Department of Health will include the Bureau for Public Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Center for Threat Preparedness, Health Care Authority, Office of Inspector General, and Human Rights Commission.
The Department of Human Services will include the Bureau for Behavioral Health, Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, Bureau for Family Assistance, Bureau for Medical Services, Bureau for Social Services, and Office of Drug Control Policy.
The Department of Health Facilities will include Hopemont Hospital, Jackie Withrow Hospital, John Manchin Sr. Health Care Center, Lakin Hospital, Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital, Welch Community Hospital, and William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital.