Referred to:  The Public Health and Social Services Committee (Chairman Lopez and Legislators Collins, Nolan, Petit, and Wawro)

Chairman of the Public Health and Social Services Committee, Craig V. Lopez, and Deputy Chair Kathy Nolan offer the following:

            WHEREAS, this resolution has been submitted by the County Executive on behalf of the Department of Health; and

            WHEREAS, the County of Ulster continues to vigilantly fight the opioid epidemic to protect our residents’ health and wellbeing; and

            WHEREAS, one key in this fight is the County Medical Examiner’s ability to identify and track opioid related and other violent deaths; and

            WHEREAS, providing the County’s Medical Examiner with tools such as laptops and tablets which they can take into the field will assist in the opioid fight, as this will help the County’s Medical Examiner collect more accurate data; and

            WHEREAS, the County of Ulster has been awarded up to three (3) tablets and two (2) laptops equipped with software through a partnership program between the New York State Association of Counties (“NYSAC”) and the New York State Department of Health (“NYSDOH”), in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), at no cost to the County; and

            WHEREAS, the software included with the tablets will ease the burden of required Medical Examiner reports for programs such as the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles Fatal Accident Reporting System (“FARS”) and the NYSDOH National Violent Death Reporting System, and will assist with creating counts of specific types of deaths when requested; now, therefore, be it

            RESOLVED, that the Ulster County Executive is hereby authorized to accept the tablets and laptops on behalf of the Ulster County Department of Health,

and move its adoption.

ADOPTED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:

AYES:                        NOES:    

Passed Committee: Public Health and Social Services on ________________.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

NONE