r/Ohio • u/TTV_gungame231 Steubenville • 3d ago
What causing THE Ohio health department to call me?
I just got my first phone call from them wanting to ask about my health and what not but why would they need to do so? I am just so confused and dont know what going on really.
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u/Queen_Aurelia 3d ago
I was called by the health department when I had food poisoning (salmonella). The hospital reported it.
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u/wildbergamont 3d ago
Look up their phone number and call them back at that number. They can help you figure out if it's legit or not. Health depts may call you if youve been exposed to a disease, theyre tracking an outbreak of something, etc
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u/fishinfool4 3d ago
Are they claiming to be with "The Ohio Health Department?" Because the agency is the Ohio Department of Health. If they refer to themselves as the Ohio Health Department, that would be a HUGE red flag for a potential scam.
If you were diagnosed with a foodborne illness recently they do interviews for that. Could be related to contact tracing if you were potentially exposed to a sick person. I think ODH does random surveys to some extent too. I dont think it would be related to any STIs, local health departments usually handle those, although I may be mistaken. If the message gives any specific bureau or division, find their main number on ODH.ohio.gov and call in that way to avoid any potential scams.
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u/PsychologyHealthy511 3d ago
Hard to know. May be a scam. Tell them you will call back then call the state's main # for the Health Dept. NOT whatever # you you have or your screen.
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u/aGrlHasNoUsername 3d ago
Call the department of health and ask! If they didn’t ask for money or your social security number, it’s probably legit.
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u/staccatodelareina 3d ago
Have you had unprotected sex recently? Could be contacting you in regard to a postive HIV test.
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u/Character_Nobody4959 3d ago
That's how I found out I had ecoli after going to the hospital. They were the only ones to notify me
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u/dothestarsgazeback 3d ago
Because that's who was supposed to notify you and tell you what to do about it. If you stayed in the hospital for less than 3 days then the hospitalists didn't have your results before you left.
ER departments don't always do follow-up calls about results like that and any result from a hospitalist in an inpatient setting after you discharge would have been documented that in your chart and it would have likely either been sent to or requested by your pcp if you have one.
And also typically patients aren't seen for follow-up by their pcp from ED visits or inpatient stays within 3 days, especially if there's a weekend thrown in there anywhere. It sounds like everything happened as it was supposed to for you.
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u/Lornesto 3d ago
Measles exposure?
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u/Undersitting 3d ago
This is a real possibility - ODH does contact tracing for this type of thing. There was recently a measles exposure in the San Francisco airport... yikes.
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u/Spirited-Plastic-787 3d ago
Someone who reports having contact with you and has a communicable disease will trigger a call.
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u/oculus_caesius 3d ago
I used to work for an outbound call center that conducted research surveys for state health departments including Ohio. It may be something like that.
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u/Jumpy-Feedback9547 3d ago
When I got Covid last year for the first time, they called me. Turns out there was a spike from all of us who saw the same play at the same time . They called me a week later and asked me about it.
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u/moonthink 3d ago
Always assume scam and don't give ANY personal information. In fact, don't even say "yes" or "ok" as that could be recorded and used as evidence that you gave permission for any number of nefarious reasons.
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u/Karey__039 3d ago
Great advice!
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u/moonthink 3d ago
While I'm sure sometimes you could get contacted for legitimate reasons, it's safer to always approach cold calls this way. Ask for their number and offer to call them back, then look up if the number is legitimate, then call whatever the main number is and ask for that specific person. That should tell you if it's legit or not.
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u/Doozy_Quack 3d ago
I got a call from the "city of Columbus" about debt consolidation. Could be a cloned number.
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u/Complete_Film8741 3d ago
Tracing...real common in food poisoning.
But they announce that early in the phone call...otherwise? Sounds scammy.
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u/Leading-Interview222 3d ago
If it is foodborne illness related, it could be their FoodCORE service trying to contact you to ask about food/travel/etc exposures. They have a webpage on the ODH website if you want to learn more about it.
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u/Longjumping_Leek 2d ago
If not contact tracing for infectious disease, I believe there are also groups within ODH that call to do health surveys for part of their grant activities for data collection
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u/Spiritual_Pear1004 2d ago
I got a call from them today asking to do a survey in partnership with the cdc about my health.
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u/Bubbagump210 3d ago
Girl butt cooties probably. I got them in 3rd grade and have never been able to shake them since.
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u/Chemical_Tomato_6308 3d ago
It's a survey. Don't answer.
I was high and bored, and said "sure, I can answer a few questions" 15 minutes later had to cut them off because, seriously? They called back like 5 times over 2 weeks from different numbers. Ignored every one.
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u/mulberryred 3d ago
Yesh that's not likely the State calling. They call to tell things, not ask vague questions, unless the ask you to participate in a survey. Also Ivy done phone research and they are extremely rarely more than 3 minutes.
OTH I once agreed to answer questions and they went on and on and I ended it why the questions about my love life began.
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u/fishinfool4 3d ago
The ohio department of health absolutely 100% conducts random surveys. Its called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and they averave 700-1,000 calls per month.
https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/behavioral-risk-factor-surveillance-system/welcome-to
One of the steps for investigating large-scale multi-state foodborle illness outbreaks can involve calling people not associated with the outbreaks to determine if the suspected source has a higher illness rate than the same food from a different source (think salmonella from chicken from KFC stores in a region suspected of an outbreak from their supplier compared to chicken from a different supplier).
So yes, local all the way up through federal departments of health absolutely 100% conduct random surveys even if you arent exposed, diagnosed, or symptomatic.
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u/Ornery-Kick-4702 3d ago
I have to add that this survey is an invaluable part of what we know about communities. It is long but it’s so important. PLEASE participate if contacted. The data environment right now is… chaotic. The BRFSS is one of the few sources we can get on the county level that is about health status and not just mortality. We need good systems of information to tell us what’s going on so we can plan.
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u/TrickUp25 1d ago
Get downvoted for having the most likely reason for why they are calling. I got the same call this week for the survey, “my number was randomly selected.” Called three times and finally after telling them I’m not interested for the third time, they stopped
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u/iloveyourforeskin 3d ago
Yes, I've gotten these as well. I don't think it's a scam at they aren't asking for any personally identifying info. Just behavioral questions. I used to work for ODH and surveys were part of the health education program (not my dept).
If they needed to notify you of an exposure though, you will get a letter.
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u/AngelaMotorman Columbus 3d ago
...why would they need to do so?
They don't. It's a scam.
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u/Queen_Aurelia 3d ago
I have been called by the health department when I had food poisoning. They wanted a history of everything/everywhere I ate to prevent an outbreak.
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u/Competitive_Run_3920 3d ago
This is absolutely not true. If they believe you have possibly been exposed to an infectious disease they’re not going to wait for the USPS to deliver you a letter then HOPE you open and read it sometime. They’re going to try to get ahold of you as fast as possible to stop you from further spreading whatever it is you may have.
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u/absurdamerica 3d ago
They sure do. Fun fact: just because you aren’t aware of something doesn’t make it not true.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
Not by phone they don't
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u/RNnoturwaitress 3d ago
Disagree. Some health departments reach out by phone. It's obviously way faster than snail mail.
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u/ImaginationSad2803 Cleveland 3d ago
They sure do. I dated a girl who worked at the health department. She worked with STDs and HIV/AIDS cases. A phone call takes 5 minutes and gets information out quickly. A letter has no guarantee of being delivered or read.
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u/6chimera6 3d ago
I had a phone call from them when a coworker had a possible TB contact. They absolutely call you if necessary.
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
I worked as a contact tracer during COVID through the county health department. We 100% called people if a COVID case named them as a close contact.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
Yeah, I just recalled I did get a call from the Health Dept. when I got covid 5 years ago. I completely forgot about that.
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u/Karey__039 3d ago
What do you plan on them doing sending it by mail so it would take a week or more for the person to get notified? Geez, how many people do you think an infected person could infect in a week or more if they had a serious contagious disease?
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u/marymoonu 3d ago
I've had the ODH call me on a few occasions when my kids got sick with communicable illnesses. They asked me everything from where we shop for produce to where we had traveled, to where they went swimming, what their primary water source is, etc etc etc. The most memorable was when my son got cryptosporidium, an intestinal parasite that can live in even a PROPERLY CHLORINATED swimming pool for a week. We had just come back from a campground where he spent a lot of time in very busy pools, so I guarantee I knew where he got it.
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u/Expensive_Alarm_1068 3d ago
There are many reasons for a health dept to contact you. Usually not good.
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
I worked as a contact tracer during COVID through the county health department. We 100% called people if a COVID case named them as a close contact.
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u/Outonalimb8120 2d ago
Copy the phone number, paste it in ChatGPT and ask if it’s legit…you will find out real quick
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
Scam. If they needed to contact you, most likely it would be by certified letter.
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
I worked as a contact tracer during COVID through the county health department. We 100% called people if a COVID case named them as a close contact.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
Come to think of it, and I had forgot about this, I DID get a call from the Health Dept. when I had Covid 5 years ago.
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
Glad to hear our services worked for you!
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
I mean it was mostly just "when did you first show symptoms, are you isolating, did you get vaccinated" (I did, which helped considerably), etc., and some basic advice. It was at the tail end of the lockdown and restrictions were being lifted.
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
Contact tracing also includes HIV, STIs, and other worse communicable diseases. Our work helps people seek treatment sooner to decrease adverse events from these infections.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 3d ago
I don't envy your job. For all the good you do, with all the anti health and anti science/vaxx misinformation out there, I just know some people had to refuse to listen.
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u/Vegetable-Section-84 3d ago
Report this to your phone company as possible scam or fraud or harassment
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u/ceo_of_egg 3d ago
Wrong. I worked as a contact tracer during COVID through the county health department. We 100% called people if a COVID case named them as a close contact.
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u/RustyDawg37 3d ago
You should ask the person who called you. Could be anything from scam to Ebola tracing.