Public Health Investigator

JOB

EXAM NUMBER: PH5645B
FIRST DAY OF FILING: 10/6/2015
Beginning Tuesday, October 6, 2015, at 8:00 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (PST).
Until the needs of the service are met and is subject to closure without prior notice.

TYPE OF RECRUITMENT: Open Competitive Job Opportunity

DEFINITION: Enforces laws, ordinances, and regulations for the control of communicable and selected non-communicable diseases; locates, counsels and refers offenders and disease carriers and conducts other public health related investigations.

CLASSIFICATION STANDARDS: Positions allocable to this class work in either a Service Planning Area under the administrative and technical supervision of a Supervising Public Health Investigator or in a specialized health investigation program under the administrative and technical supervision of a Supervising Public Health Investigator or higher level program manager. Incumbents enforce state and County public health laws, ordinances and regulations for the control of communicable and selected non-communicable diseases, such as alcoholism, and counseling patients to encourage risk reduction behaviors and referring them for treatment.

• Conduct investigations to locate cases and contacts of tuberculosis, sexually transmitted disease, human immunodeficiency virus or other communicable diseases and selected non-communicable diseases, such as alcoholism, by interviewing patients to determine contacts, locating and tracing contacts, and convincing them to voluntarily seek diagnosis and treatment as required by applicable public health laws; has authority to exercise legal interventions to compel compliance up to and including authorizing arrest when essential to protect the public's health.
• Counsel individuals who suffer from a communicable or non-communicable disease regarding the nature and control of their disease and educates these individuals on risk reduction techniques and behaviors.
• Enforce public health laws, rules and regulations governing communicable disease control by serving legal orders of the Health Officer on patients in their homes, hospitals or detention facilities, quarantining cases and contacts of communicable disease in private homes or institutions, placing restrictions on infected individuals employed in sensitive occupations such as food handling, supervising disinterments of human remains for foreign shipment, assisting in food poisoning investigations, coordinating case management of persons potentially exposed to rabies, responding to widespread outbreaks of communicable disease and establishing and enforcing the State mussel quarantine order.
• Transport patients in connection with the enforcement of legal orders pertaining to the isolation of such patients in a hospital or detention facility, or to facilitate the medical care and treatment of patients infected with a communicable disease.
• Investigate cases of quarantine violations and refusal or failure of persons to comply with health laws, ordinances and regulations; recommend court action to enforce legal orders, prepare cases for court by gathering evidence and appear in court as a representative of the Health Officer on cases involving violations of the public health laws, ordinances, and regulations pertaining to communicable and non-communicable disease investigation.
• Support the California Department of Health Services Marine Biotoxin Monitoring Program, through the collection of shellfish and phytoplankton samples and preparation of these samples for shipment to the state laboratory.
• Conduct special investigations not directly involving communicable diseases, such as investigating impersonations of departmental personnel or the verification of home births.

• EXAMINATION CONTENT – This examination will consist of an evaluation of experience and desirable qualifications based upon application information and supplemental questions weighted 100%. Applicants must meet the minimum requirements and achieve a passing score of 70% or higher on the examination in order to be placed on the Eligible Register. Passing this examination and being added to the eligible register does not…