The McHenry County Board of Health is ready to offer its top job to Mike Hill.

Hill is currently Executive Director of the Paso Del Norte Health Information Exchange.  It serves nineteen counties in West Texas.

Prior to that, he was CEO of the Texas Association of Local Health Officials.

His current organization’s web page has this explanation of what it does:

“Members of the HIE plan to work together as a collaborative of major and community health care providers through the secure sharing of privacy-protected health information about patients and the sharing of best practices for the improvement of care.

Members include hospitals, physicians, allied health providers, outpatient clinics, pharmacies, labs, and imaging centers, to name a few.”

Previously he held the position of Public Health Director of the City of El Paso Health Department.  The city has over 600,000 people.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health, has worked for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and is working on his Ph.D.

Hill has some epidemiological background, an area the Health Department has taken criticism on with regard to the cancer cluster in McCullom Lake.

“He comes in with a wealth of public health experience,” 1776 restaurateur Andy Andresky said.  Andresky is a long-time member of the Board of Health and has served as its president.

“He’s got a world of credentials.”

The County Board’s liaison to the Board of Health, Jim Heisler, told me that the two finalists were both excellent.

“It came down to whose shoes were better shined,” said the shoe store owner.

A resolution is scheduled to be passed at Monday’s Board of Health meeting in Woodstock to allow contract negotiations to proceed.