The new baby was not happy. Far from it.She had been plucked from her cozy nest, put into a bucket with her siblings and was now being handled by two strangers, one of whom held her down on a table while the other clipped weird littleLike other county government offices, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health is extending its hours, keeping its doors open a half-hour longer daily.
Starting Monday, general health department hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, compared with 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. currently. The Immunization Clinic, which did not extend its hours, and Vital Records Office, which did by a half-hour, will close earlier for administrative reasons, the department said.
The more time the health department has to serve the public the better, Mindy Waldron, department administrator, said Thursday.
The change should not disrupt or change services, she said, but it will require some “creative scheduling” of staff.
The department is trying out flex and compressed scheduling – four-day workweeks for some employees who work longer days and take off different days of the week. Staff levels will vary during the week.
But “We don’t think we’ll be too thin at anytime staff-wise,” Waldron said. She added that extended hours are likely here to stay, regardless of how the experiment with flex and compressed scheduling goes.
mschroeder@jg.net
