Fiscal Note
Funds are included in the 2009 Public Health Operating Budget. There is no anticipated impact on cost controls or the tax levy.
Title
Resources for Tuberculosis Isolation and Treatment Support.
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PREAMBLE
Public Health is largely responsible for assuring that people with tuberculosis (TB) complete treatment. There are times when working with TB clients who are homeless and others who live in precarious circumstances that temporary housing and support are needed to assure successfully treatment. The ability to better assure isolation protects the health of the public. The need for respiratory isolation can last from two weeks to six months.
Catherine M. Corscot was a member of the Board of Health. She established a trust on behalf of two family members with instructions that after their death the remainder of the trust would be given to the City of Madison to be used to support the City's hospital for contagious disease. She died in 1952. The hospital was closed in December 1953.
After the last beneficiary died in March 1996, the Circuit Court of Dane County ordered that the Corscot Trust be used to aid in the prevention of contagious diseases. The Court stipulated that these funds could not be used to replace or supplant programs currently funded by the City of Madison's operating budget. The City of Madison may distribute funds upon a two-thirds vote of Common Council and public recognition of Catherine M. Corscot.
In November 2007, Common Council approved a resolution to create a fund to provide temporary housing and support for people with TB who live in precarious circumstances. Half of the funding was to come from funds contributed by local health care systems and the other half from the Corscot Trust.
In 2008, $5,294 was used to support TB clients. Local health care institutions contributed half of the funds that were used. Unused trust funds from 2008 are being returned to the Trust. This resolution authorizes the use of up to $5,000 from the Trust in 2009.
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WHEREAS Public Health is largely responsible for assuring that people with TB complete treatment and there are occasions when working with clients with active TB when temporary housing and support are needed to assure successful treatment, thereby protecting the health of the public, and
WHEREAS Catherine M. Corscot died in May 1952 and pursuant to her will a trust was created for the lifetime benefit of two family members, provided that the residue be turned over to the City of Madison to be used for the care and maintenance of the East Washington Avenue Hospital, which was established for the treatment of contagious disease and maintained by the City of Madison;
WHEREAS the East Washington Avenue Hospital was closed on December 31, 1953 and the last lifetime beneficiary died in 1996, the County Court for Dane County ordered that the Catherine M. Corscot Trust shall be used for the purpose of aiding in the prevention of contagious disease and the medical care for citizens of Madison suffering from, or threatened by, contagious disease, with the requirement that these funds not be used to be used to replace or supplant funding for programs currently funded through the Public Health operating budget,
WHEREAS the City of Madison has sole discretion of how to distribute funds from the Corscot Trust through a two-thirds vote of Common Council,
WHEREAS half of the funding for the TB isolation fund will come from local health organizations and healthcare providers and the other half from the Catherine M. Corscot Trust,
WHEREAS the Board of Health for Madison and Dane County has endorsed the creation of a fund to support people with active TB who need temporary support and housing,
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council authorizes the release of up to $5,000 from the Catherine M. Corscot Trust for the purpose of providing temporary support of people with active TB during 2009,
BE IF FURTHER RESOLVED that Common Council recognizes Catherine M. Corscot for the provisions she made through her trust for the care of people with contagious disease, which now extends more than 50 years after her death.