Cutbacks in state health department programs mean big changes in services.

“A huge change this fall — we’re going to have to charge for flu vaccine,” said Linda Hattaway, county health director in Muskogee, Wagoner and Sequoyah counties. “It’s going to go from nothing to $25. We usually give about 5,000 doses.”

She said everyone probably will have to have an appointment to get a shot.

“The state’s going to send us credit card machines,” she said. “The state buys the vaccine, and those funds will go to the state. It’s kind of a big change for us.”

County health departments across the state are taking some hefty budget cuts and some programs are being shut down.

Child Guidance Centers formerly housed in county health centers in the following counties closed the last day of June: Cherokee, McIntosh, Sequoyah, Wagoner, Mayes, Adair, Okmulgee and Creek counties, along with many others across the state.

Hattaway said Muskogee County Health Department’s Child Guidance Center became one of 14 regional centers across the state on July 1.

“I think it’s going to be a hardship for the people who don’t live in Muskogee to drive here to get that service,” Hattaway said.

Other regional centers in northeastern Oklahoma are located at Tulsa, Claremore, McAlester and Poteau.

And although Muskogee has become a regional center, it only has one psychologist, Linda Born, with 27 years experience.

Born came here when the Wagoner County Child Guidance Center closed. And, she came at a time when Muskogee County’s center hadn’t had a psychologist in three years, Hattaway said.

Tonya James, a child development specialist with a master’s degree, also works in the Child Guidance Center.

“This center used to be supervised and led by Ph.D. psychologists,” Hattaway said.

There are no more audiologists in county health clinics anywhere in the state, Hattaway said.

And, there’s been a cutback in speech pathologists.

Kim Winston, a speech pathologist with 40 years’ experience, is no longer at Muskogee. She took a buyout offered to health department workers across the state.

“We lost two speech pathologists in Wagoner County,” Hattaway said.

Muskogee County’s former audiologist with 23 years experience, Mary Ellen Finnerty, was out as of June 30 because of the cutbacks. She took a buyout. Although she’s gone, she hasn’t had the heart to clear out her desk yet, Hattaway said Friday.

Hattaway sat in Finnerty’s empty office Friday and sorted through paperwork among expensive testing equipment no longer in use.

When babies are born at Muskogee Regional Medical Center they get hearing tests, and if more testing was needed, they used to be sent to the audiologist at the county health clinic, Hattaway said.

Early intervention people now do that second screening. But if they need further help, their families have to take them to Tulsa, Hattaway said.

“We’ve had to cut out adult health care,” Hattaway said.

“We used to do blood pressure checks and diabetes checks. In the last year, we’ve quit doing that. Now people are referred to private doctors.”

County commissioners and the city at one point gave Muskogee County Health Clinic funds to run a general clinic for adults with no insurance, she said.

“We no longer have a doctor for the clinic.”

She said the clinic at the health department was open before federal dollars were made available for centers like the one in Porter and the one in Hulbert. Those clinics offer primary care on a sliding fee, Hattaway said.

“People still call for all those services (that have been cut out),” Hattaway said. “We work hard to find alternate places they can go — sometimes it’s in town — sometimes it’s to Tulsa or one of the federal clinics.”

  As for children’s health — the center here now only sees children who have no insurance and no Medicaid, Hattaway said.

“We don’t see 10 children a month. We’re here filling a gap — some gaps don’t get filled.”

The cutback in services didn’t just start with the recent downfall in the economy. It’s worse now, but health care offerings here have been on a downward slide.

“In the last five years, we’ve gone from nine clinic nurses to four in Muskogee County,” Hattaway said.

The center here one time had 10 Children’s First nurses — nurses seeing first-time mothers.

“We’re down to three,” she said.

To qualify for service here, first-time moms have to qualify for Medicaid or be within 180 percent of poverty level.

“As far as services go, we’re going backward instead of forward,” Hattaway said.

We dropped Elder Care six or seven years ago. Fortunately, Muskogee County Area Agency on Aging has picked that up. Bill Waggoner runs it at EODD and coordinates nutrition sites, she said.

Reach Donna Hales at 684-2923 or dhales @muskogeephoenix.com.