Overview
Position Overview
This position is an essential team member for a fast paced, high volume, critical program with 6-day operations Monday-Saturday including several holidays. Under general direction, this position performs complex technical functions within the Newborn Screening Program; serves as a direct liaison with physicians, medical specialists, and parents; provides explanation of newborn screening guidelines and policies to physicians and other health care providers; communicates newborn screening test results and recommendations; assists with data documentation and maintenance; maintains newborn screening registries.
Essential Functions
- Coordinates and performs daily duties involved with referral, follow-up and data management in support of the statewide Newborn Metabolic Screening Program, including explanation of low-level test results through written and telephone communications with birthing hospitals, medical specialists, physicians, parents and related agencies, and provision of guidance related to directions for further testing.
- Serves as a direct liaison with physicians, metabolic specialists, parents and statewide Local Health Departments and assists with in-depth technical assistance and follow-up tracking to ensure compliance with testing and treatment protocols, and coordinates interagency management of children with confirmed metabolic, endocrine and hemoglobin disorders by assisting with referrals, and triages to appropriate staff members.
- Maintain registries of information on all infants suspect for, or diagnosed with a disorder identified through newborn screening.
- Responds to daily inquiries regarding program policies.
- Confirms that updated educational information, which contains an explanation of program policies and rules, are available and distributed to health care providers and the public throughout the state.
- Performs duties as assigned or required related to newborn hearing screening data entry, record keeping, and data reporting.
- Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.
About Illinois Department Public Health
In Illinois, if you have eaten at a restaurant ... required hospital or nursing home care ... vacationed at a campground or swam at a public beach or pool ... drank a glass of milk ... got married or divorced ... had a baby, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has touched your life in some important way.
Assuring the quality of our food, setting the standards for hospital and nursing home care, checking the safety of recreation areas, overseeing the inspection of milk producing farms and processing plants, maintaining the state's vital records and screening newborns for genetic diseases are just some of the duties of IDPH.
In fact, IDPH has 200 different programs that benefit each state resident and visitor, although its daily activities of maintaining the public's health are rarely noticed unless a breakdown in the system occurs. With the assistance of local public health agencies, these essential programs and services make up Illinois' public health system, a system that forms a frontline defense against disease through preventive measures and education. Public health has provided the foundation for remarkable gains in saving lives and reducing suffering. Today, life expectancy is 80 years for women and 74 years for men compared with fewer than 50 years at the at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the past, IDPH directed state efforts to control smallpox, cholera and typhoid, virtually eliminated polio, reduced dental decay through fluoridation of community water supplies, and corrected sanitary conditions that threatened water and food supplies.
Today, IDPH has programs to deal with persistent problems that require continued vigilance – infectious diseases, such as AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and meningococcal disease; foodborne and communicable diseases, such as E. coli 0157: H7, monkeypox, salmonella and West Nile virus; vaccine preventable diseases; lead poisoning; lack of health care in rural areas; health disparities among racial groups, breast, cervical and prostate cancer; Alzheimer's disease; and other health threats -- sexually transmitted diseases, tobacco use, violence, and other conditions associated with high-risk behaviors. In addition, IDPH has been charged with handling the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of bioterrorism.
IDPH, which is one of the state's oldest agencies, was first organized in 1877 with a staff of three and a two-year budget of $5,000. IDPH, now has an annual budget of $2.9 billion in state and federal funds, headquarters in Springfield and Chicago, seven regional offices located around the state, three laboratories, and 1,200 employees.
IDPH is organized into 12 offices, each of which addresses a distinct area of public health. Each office operates and supports numerous ongoing programs and is prepared to respond to extraordinary situations as they arise.
