Local Health Department and Hospital Collaboration - A Comparison of Perspectives

The Ten Essential Public Health Services delineate the major areas of emphasis for public health practitioners. Of specific interest for this study is Essential Service #4 – “Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems”. In most communities, potential partners in identifying and solving health problems would include the key health organizations of the area, including but not limited to the local health department and local hospital or health system. Both the local health department and local hospital represent specific expertise, manpower and resources. However, despite operating in a time of limited resources, current literature has identified limited collaborative efforts between the two entities. All 126 hospitals in Kentucky were surveyed regarding relationships and collaborative efforts with their respective local health departments. Information gathered from this survey was matched with existing data collected by the Kentucky Public Health Research Network (K-PHReN), a public health practice based research network, which identified Kentucky local health department perspectives on collaborative efforts with a variety of allied health organizations including hospitals. Preliminary analysis suggests that the level of collaboration perceived by the local health department may be an overestimation when viewed through the perspective of other health professionals and institutions. The intent of this study was not only to illustrate how robust the system of collaboration, between local health departments and local hospitals is in Kentucky presently, but also to examine the form of collaboration whether it be communication, planning or service delivery with the ultimate goal of improving the mobilization of community partnerships.