From a distance, it looks like Douglas County has an inordinate number of cooks in its health-care kitchen. Some consolidation may be in order, officials hinted Monday.

“We’d like to see if there are ways in which we could become more efficient,” said Bob Johnson, chairman of the Douglas County Commission.

The county now supports the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Visiting Nurses Assn., Health Care Access and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

“You can paint with a broad brush and say that’s too many (programs), but we don’t want to do that,” Johnson said.

At the commission’s regular meeting Monday, commissioners asked County Administrator Craig Weinaug to encourage the agencies to look for ways to both streamline their services and diversify their revenues in time for next year’s budget deliberations, which begin in May.

“At this point, we don’t have the answers. We’re hoping they do,” Johnson said, referring to the programs.

The quest for efficiency is not new, agency directors said.

“All of us meet monthly to make sure that we’re not duplicating services and to check to see what we can do to keep people from falling through the cracks,” said Jan Jenkins, director at Visiting Nurses Assn.

Visiting Nurses Assn. provides a variety of in-home health care services to senior citizens, people with disabilities and young mothers. Six percent of its $3.5 million budget comes from the county.

“Sixty-seven percent of our budget comes from Medicare,” Jenkins said. “The next biggest category is Medicaid; it’s 12 percent.”

Nikki King, executive director at Health Care Access, said the Lawrence-based clinic had a formal “memo of understanding” with the health department “that makes sure there’s no duplication between the two programs.”

The memo, King said, is renewed every two years.

Health Care Access provides and coordinates health care services for Douglas County residents who are uninsured and not eligible for Medicaid.

Health Care Access gets between $12,000 and $13,000 from Douglas County. Most of its $300,000 budget comes from private donations and Kansas Department of Health and Environment grants.