By Denise Allabaugh, The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Jun. 25–WILKES-BARRE — Ted Kross, former operations manager in the emergency department at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, has been hired as the director of the city’s health department.
The position pays an annual salary of $66,036, according to the 2008 city budget.
Kross, 47, replaces longtime director Henry Radulski, who retired after working for the city for 28 years. Radulski worked as a health inspector for 18 years, deputy director for the health department for two years and director for eight years.
The Wilkes-Barre Health Department, formed in 1998 after a battle between former Mayor Tom McGroarty and the Kirby Health Center board over restaurant inspections, emphasizes preventive health services and provides a wide array of services to city residents from communicable disease control, testing and clinical services to inspections, animal control and education.
Kross oversees 10 employees, including three inspectors, three nurses, two health educators, a secretary and new animal control officer Ed McDade.
McDade replaces former animal control officer Rick Macko, who resigned to start his own business.
Kross also is responsible for applying for grants for injury prevention, bioterrorism prevention, maternal and children’s health, immunizations, HIV and AIDS testing, skin and colorectal cancer education and prevention, and heart disease and stroke prevention.
The health department rents space on North Franklin Street inside the Kirby Health Center, which is undergoing renovations.
Kross had been employed by Geisinger since 1985 and spent six months working as the director of the emergency department at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Maryland.
In his former positions in the private sector, Kross said he was familiar with reacting to health problems. In his new public health position, he said his goal is to be proactive and “keep people healthy and prevent disease.”
To assist low-income people who need help, the health department partners with the Commission on Economic Opportunity and other local agencies to provide services residents couldn’t afford, he said.
Kross is a 1979 graduate of Bishop Hoban High School and earned a master’s degree in health care administration from King’s College. He and his wife, Gina, have four children.
He was chosen for the position after interviews with three qualified applicants who met the criteria mandated by the state, said Christine Jensen, the city’s director of human resources. Mayor Tom Leighton conducted the final interview with Kross and hired him after Jensen, City Administrator J.J. Murphy and Deputy Administrator Marie McCormick conducted interviews and recommended him. The position was advertised statewide, Jensen said.
[email protected], 570-821-2115
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