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Board of Health
Members | Role | Functions | Duties | Meetings
Under the Metro Charter, the Board must be
composed of six members. Three members must be doctors of
medicine certified for practice by the state board of medical
examiners and licensed by the state licensing board for the
healing arts. Each of the three must have at least five years
experience in the active practice of medicine. Per the Metro
Charter requirements, one of the doctors must have experience in
the field of psychiatry.
One member of the board must be
a registered nurse. The two remaining members of the Board
are chosen without reference to occupation.
Members of the Board of Health are
appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by a majority vote from the
Metro Council. Each Board member serves his or her duties without
compensation.
Board Members:
William Hance, JD, Chair
Director of Communications - VUMC |
Henry Foster, MD
Chief Advisor to the President on Teen Pregnancy |
| Ruth Stewart, MD, Vice-Chair |
Margaret Behm, JD
Attorney in private practice |
Janie E. Parmley, RN
Nurse Clinical Specialist, Vanderbilt Home Care |
Samuel O. Okpaku, MD, PhD, Secretary
Psychiatrist in private practice |
Board
of Health Role:
The role of the Board of Health is to
administer and control public health for the Metropolitan
Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
The Board of Health, through its chief
medical director, exercise all the administrative functions of
Metro Government pertaining to the following:
Board
of Health Functions:
- The physical and mental health of the
people.
- The investigation and control of
communicable diseases.
- The regulation of publicly and
privately owned institutions for the purpose of
sanitation and public health.
- The enforcement of reasonable rules
and regulations promulgated as herein provided.
- The collection, compilation,
tabulation, analyzing and reporting of statistics and
data concerning birth, still births, deaths and such
vital records.
- The performance or the functions
previously assigned by law to the health officers or the
health departments of the City of Nashville and Davidson
County.
- Inspect all charitable institutions,
all jails and all institutions of the metropolitan
government where sick, insane, destitute or other persons
are confined. The board may cause any person convicted of
violating any law or ordinance and who is confined, or
who is on parole, to be examined as to the causes
contributing to the delinquency and shall make and keep a
record of such examinations.
Board
of Health Duties:
- Determine and establish the policies
to be followed in the exercise of its functions.
- Establish within the health department
such divisions, branches, or subdivisions, and plan of
organization as may be consistent with efficient
administration, which organizational plan shall be
submitted by the board to the council for approval by
ordinance, and which organizational plan may be amended
over time.
- After public hearings adopt reasonable
rules and regulations or amend rules and regulations
previously adopted as necessary for the protection of the
health of the people, which rules and regulations, among
other things, shall set standards and procedures and
requirements of conduct not less than as set out in
regulations of the commissioner of public health of
Tennessee. No such rule or regulation shall be contrary
to any metropolitan ordinance.
- Hear and act upon complaints of
persons affected by decisions of the chief medical
director and to amend or set aside such decisions as are
contrary to policies or regulations of the board.
- Cause to be submitted, with the aid of
the department of law, for submission to the Metro
Council for its consideration, a comprehensive Health
Code which shall embrace all matters with relation to
public health to which the powers and duties of the board
extend, and which shall have as its purpose the
preservation and promotion of the health of the people of
the metropolitan government.
- Submit to the mayor, within six months
after the beginning of each new term of office, a report
of the activities of the metropolitan board of health and
a comprehensive program of public health and indigent
medical care.
- Conduct inquiries, make investigations
and hold hearings for the purpose of investigating
nuisances, preventing the creation of nuisances, taking
other preventative steps to protect the health of the
community and for other purposes in connection with the
powers, duties and authorities of the board. In
conducting any such inquiry and mailing of any such
investigation the board may exercise the same
investigative powers as were vested by the Metro Charter
in other metropolitan agencies which are given
investigative powers.
- Contract with other governmental
agencies, or with public or private institutions, subject
to confirmation by the council by resolution for such
services as will further the program and policies of the
board.
- Cause to be prepared by the chief
medical director, subject to review and revision by the
board, the proposed annual budget for the metropolitan
board of health.
- Cooperate with agencies of the United
States and of the State of Tennessee in all matters of
public health and sanitation and accept, receive and
provide for the use of federal and state grants in aid,
state aid and matching funds.
- Cooperate with privately endowed or
operated institutions, funds or foundations in all
matters of public health and sanitation and receive and
accept and provide for the use of grants from any such
institutions, funds or foundations.
- Exercise such other authority and
perform such other duties as may be required by ordinance
consistent with the general law and the provisions of the
Metro Charter.
Board
of Health Meetings Meeting Minutes:
The Board of Health meets on the second Tuesday of every
month at 4 p.m. at the Lentz Public Health Health Center (311 23rd Avenue
North). To view meeting minutes from recent board meetings, select a meeting
month/year from the list below:
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