Staffing shortage forces suspension of WIC certification at Mosaic

Alex Simone, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
Updated ·2 min read

Sep. 11—Women, infants and children certification no longer is available on Mosaic Life Care's maternity ward, a move officials with the St. Joseph Health Department say they hope is temporary but is expected to last at least a year.

The decision will help the health department use its resources most efficiently while dealing with current staff shortages, St. Joseph WIC Coordinator Lisa Horn said.

"When we're out at the hospital, we can see up to three families a day out there," she said. "But when participants are seen here in the clinic, we schedule them every 15 minutes. So you can imagine the efficiency is much, much different."

To qualify for WIC benefits, women have to be either pregnant or nursing or be children up to their fifth birthday. Enrollees also have to make 185% of the federal poverty level or less.

The goal is to resume WIC services at Mosaic sooner rather than later, but that depends on the number of employees available. Since WIC is federally funded, new employees need about six months of training, which pushes back any potential return date for WIC services at Mosaic, Horn said.

"It only takes one nutritionist to go out to the hospital, which is fantastic," she said. "But being a nutrition program, the nutritionist is the cornerstone of the program. So that's why it's really hard to send one nutritionist there now for half a day, two days a week because we really need her here."

Despite the challenges, there are noteworthy advantages to having WIC services at Mosaic, Horn said.

"For a certification or to be put on the program, mom and baby do have to be present in clinic," she said. "Some moms may be hesitant to get a baby out or sometimes it's just really hard to coordinate with other kids just to get out of the house. So, it really is a customer service, very customer service-friendly process for us as the staff to go out to the hospital to take care of those moms while they're already there."

Alex Simone can be reached at alex.simone@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter at @NPNOWSimone.