Understanding and supporting the sharing of services and capacities by local health departments -- I

This project will further explore how sharing public health services and capacity, or "regionalization," can improve public health programs and services and will, by creating a series of case examples, shed light on various models and conditions for successful regional sharing. This project, building on the first-phase exploration of regionalization, will examine key issues identified during that study, including: the impact of public health accreditation on the need for regional sharing; the need for policy maker engagement; and the differences in approach by jurisdictional size. This project will also develop up to 16 case examples to illustrate the construct of regional sharing, the conditions necessary for successful sharing models and the role of policy makers in regional collaboration. Additional activities will include: (1) stakeholder interviews to inform the case examples and recommendations; (2) a national stakeholders' meeting on shared services and accreditation; (3) a report summarizing exploratory meetings with local policy makers to understand how public health practitioners might engage them to support and/or lead performance improvement and regionalization; and (4) recommendations for ways the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation can support and promote sharing public health capacities and services as a strategy to improve public health performance and population health.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $91,080.00

Awarded on: 10/3/2010

Time frame: 10/15/2010 - 5/31/2012

Grant Number: 68213