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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jennifer Kolker, MPH, Dennis Gallagher, MPA, Janet Davidson, MBA, and Susan Rubinstein, MPH. Health Management and Policy, Drexel University School of Public Health, Mail Stop 660, 245 N. 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192, 215-762-8457, jkolker@drexel.edu

Local health departments provide basic programs including prevention and control of infectious diseases, mitigation of environmental hazards, coordinated response to disasters, and assuring the availability of selected health services. However, not all U.S. counties have an organized local health department. For example, of the sixty-seven Counties in Pennsylvania, only six are served by an organized county-wide health department. Preliminary comparisons of trends in leading causes of death show that Pennsylvania Counties with local health departments have healthier populations than those without health departments. Building the public health infrastructure by establishing local health departments is an important component of strategies for improving the public's health. Since 2004, the Drexel University School of Public Health has studied the cost, value and feasibility of establishing countywide public health departments in Lancaster, York and Dauphin Counties in Pennsylvania. Such studies require determining: public health needs; the level of services necessary to meet state requirements for a health department; the optimal level and scope of services to provide for essential public health needs; the current inventory and status of public health services and resources; the appropriate organizational model of a health department; and the level of support and engagement needed from health service providers and individual municipalities in the County. What we heard and learned, though, was often more about political attitudes toward government oversight than about protecting the County from risk or harm – a challenge for the future of local public health.

Learning Objectives: