NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Board of Reno County Commissioners approved on Tuesday releasing a Request for Qualifications for a doctor to act as a Medical Consultant to assist the county health officer.
"Based on the statute, the consultant to the health officer, if the health officer is not a medical doctor, needs to be a doctor, as a medical consultant," said Reno County Administrator Randy Partington. "This is for public health. This isn't just all general health items at the Health Department. This medical consultant is on for public emergencies."
The current medical consultant is Dr. Scott Pauly. He is welcome to apply, as is any other doctor who meets the qualifications.
"What I did, with Randy's help, was just kind of model a RFQ off of the state statute and say, we're required to have a consulting physician for the Health Department. Who would like to apply for that? We'll see what kind of applications we get, which could include the current person doing that job already and anyone else who is interested and then we'll come back to the Board of Health, you guys acting as the Board of Health, to review those qualifications and select somebody."
The formalized process is different than how it was handled before the pandemic.
"We don't really have a list of doctors that we're going to send it to," Partington said. "We'll put it out there publicly and hope that a doctor, just a single doctor, will have to be appointed."
The statute intends for this consultant to be an individual, though Hoffman said they would look at agreements with other types of arrangements, if that is the response they get, to see if they can fit the statute.
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