In the early 1900s, communities recognized the need for organizations to be responsible for the health and well being of their citizens. During that time the Medina County Health Department was created, and in the early 1960s the Cities of Brunswick, Medina, and Wadsworth banded together with the townships to create a single, county-wide health district, managed by the Medina County Board of Health. They are responsible for tracking births in the county, providing vaccines to prevent a variety of illnesses, working with groups to prevent injuries like overdoses, educating students and parents on the dangers of vaping and tobacco, assisting women, infants, and children to get the nutrition and education they need, inspecting restaurants, pools, and campgrounds, managing mosquito populations and educating people on mosquito-borne illnesses, inspecting car seats, providing support to families of newborns, and much more! In 2019 they were recognized as a Federally Qualified Health Center which means they get money from the federal government to help anyone who comes into their clinics.

In 1919, the state enacted  The Hughes and Griswold Act, which established health districts throughout Ohio. Then in the 1960’s, the three cities in Medina County came together with the townships to form the Medina County Combined General District which is run by the Medina County Board of Health. Since then, the Health Department has added services as needed and even become a Federally Qualified Health Center, which gives them additional revenue from the federal government to provide care. Patients can receive primary medical care, dental care, and assistance with securing health insurance either through the State of Ohio or the federal health exchange. The agency also performs car seat inspections, provides breastfeeding support, conducts plumbing inspections for the City of Wadsworth and the townships, and monitor health concerns throughout the county and region.

Our changing weather has brought about some new challenges. Tick populations, which used to die back when the ground froze for weeks at a time, are now not dying out and we are seeing an increase in both ticks and tick-borne illnesses. Also people travel more than they used to which brings back germs that haven’t traveled as much in the past. The health system as a whole has moved everything to computers, which has definitely increased our efficiency and decreased on our paper use, but with it has come the need to manage cyber security and buy computers and software which are much more expensive than paper. And finally, Medina County as a whole is seen as financially well off so it is difficult to get grants and other funding even though we have areas and families with the same needs as other counties. So we are always working on funding for health improvement projects.

Our job is to serve Medina County residents but we do get people from outside the county coming in. We pursued the Federally Qualified Health Center status so we didn’t have to turn those people away. Now, our clients can technically come from anywhere in the country.

We have moved a lot of our processes online. For example, if you are building a structure and need your plumbing plans reviewed, you can submit them online now. It has been a big help and cost-savings for everyone as they don’t have to bring us three copies of large drawings. It also means we can review the information and get back to them right away to make any required changes. We are digital in all our record keeping and eliminated a great deal of paper use. We also have uploaded all Health Department inspection and permitting information as a layer into the  County’s GIS program, which shows all the details about a piece of property from the government’s point of view.

We are part of the government structure, but are not a county office. The Health Department is managed by a Board of Health who are appointed by township officials, city officials, village officials, one county commissioner, and licensed industries. We interact with all the county agencies including Emergency Management Agency, Family First Council, Office for Older Adults, County Engineer, County Sanitary Engineer, the ADAMH Board (Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Board), and Job and Family Services.

We post all our positions on our website, www.worklocal.net, the Ohio Public Health Association website, and the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners website. Student intern opportunities are posted with universities in the area, and often the County site and our Chambers of Commerce also share our job openings.

Why do employees like to work here?

Almost all of our staff live in Medina County so they get to take care of their neighbors and have a real impact on the community. That is really powerful and keeps us all motivated as the health and well-being of people we care about is our whole job!