Public Health Investigator

Healthcare Staffing Professionals has an immediate need for Tuberculosis Public Health Investigators. The Public Health Investigator will support the Tuberculosis Control Program. The Tuberculosis Control Program (TB) Public Health Investigator (PHI), conducts tuberculosis investigations and enforces laws, ordinances, and regulations for the control of tuberculosis. The PHI promotes the well-being of the community and seeks to prevent disease, disability, and premature death and improve the quality of life with appropriate interventions.

Position will be hybrid and will include office work and field work activities. Field assignments will primarily focus on Persons Experiencing Homelessness and will include those living in various places and stages of Homeless camps such as under the Freeways, City parks , alleys and the Skid row area in Downtown. The Public Health Investigator may be exposed to Active TB Cases and will be required to transport these individuals to county clinics and hospitals for medical treatment and follow up.

The positions will start immediately upon acceptance and employment clearance and are initially funded through 12/31/24 with potential renewal.

Pay Rate-

$32.96/hr working 40 hours a week

Benefits

Paid Holidays, Paid Sick Time, PTO

Healthcare

Employer Fully Funded Healthcare (Anthem Blue Cross), Dental and Vision, Life Insurance from Initial Start Date.

Schedule: Office and Field work activities, 8am – 4:30 pm. Office is based in Inglewood, CA

Duties

• The Tuberculosis Control Program (TB) Public Health Investigator (PHI), conducts tuberculosis investigations and enforces laws, ordinances, and regulations for the control of tuberculosis. The PHI promotes the well-being of the community and seeks to prevent disease, disability, and premature death and improve the quality of life with appropriate interventions.
• Position will be hybrid and will include office work and field work activites.
  
  

Investigation

• Adheres to PHI professional standards of practice (PHI Practice), procedures, policies, and performance measures in the investigation of reports of communicable disease and non communicable disease.
• Interprets, clarifies, and enforces state and local public health laws, regulations, and departmental policies and procedures.
• Utilizes public health investigation principles, methods, and techniques to achieve appropriate case closure to assigned investigations.
• Conducts investigations to locate cases and contacts of tuberculosis.
• Conducts investigations of select non-communicable diseases e.g. clients with chemical dependencies.
  
  

Counseling

• Counsels clients who have communicable, including TB, or non-communicable diseases of the nature and control of their disease, and educates these clients on risk reduction techniques and behaviors.
• Interviews infected clients to determine contacts or other persons at risk, locating and tracing contacts, and encourages them to voluntarily seek diagnosis and treatment and/or counseling as required by applicable public health laws.
  
  

Case Management

• Provides formal documentation in the management of investigations.
• Provides case management of investigations.
  
  

Enforcement

• Complies with established Department of Public Health (DPH) policies procedures, state and local laws, ordinances, and regulations for the control of communicable disease and non communicable disease.
• Applies appropriate principles of legal intervention in order to achieve compliance up to, and including, arrest and incarceration when essential to protect the publics health.
• Enforces public health laws, rules and regulations governing communicable disease control by serving orders of the Health Officer on clients in their homes, hospitals or detention facilities, isolating cases and quarantining contacts of communicable disease in private homes or institutions.
• Serves orders of the TB Controller and detains tuberculosis clients, as necessary.
• Monitors and conducts surveillance to ensure compliance with orders of the TB Controller.
• Investigates alleged violations of orders of the TB Controller.
• Arrest clients who have violated orders of the TB Controller.
• Appears in court to provide case testimony.
• Places, enforces, and removes the Temporary Order for Detention on clients at designated LA County custody facilities.
• Transport clients, in connection with the enforcement of legal orders, to a hospital or detention facility, to facilitate the medical care of such clients with a communicable disease.
• Enforces public health laws by placing restrictions on infected clients employed in sensitive occupations such as food handlers, assisting in food-borne disease outbreak investigations, responding to widespread outbreaks of communicable disease, preparing Port of Entry letter and supervising disinterment of human remains for foreign shipment, and enforcing the State mussel quarantine orders as directed by supervision.
• Investigates cases of quarantine violations and refusal or failure of clients to comply with health laws, ordinances and regulations; recommends court action to enforce legal orders, prepares case(s) for court by gathering evidence, and appear in court as the representative of the Health Officer.
• Complies with PHI emergency preparedness and response plans, implementation, training, and exercises.
• Conducts assigned Commercial Sex Venue inspections per Title 11, Part 3 of the Los Angeles County Code, DPH Regulations and Policy, and PHI Administration guidelines as directed by supervision.
  
  

External Collaborations

• Supports the California Department of Health Services Marine Biotoxin Monitoring Program by collecting shellfish and phytoplankton samples, water samples, and preparing these samples for shipment to the state laboratory as directed by supervision.
  
  

Regulatory Compliance

• Complies with all regulatory standards and requirements, and all DPH, PHI, and program specific policies.
• Performs other duties, as assigned, within the scope of a Public Health Investigator.