Change Management

Consolidating Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio: A One Year Retrospective

This report provides an overview of the eight major strategic and operational challenges the newly formed Summit County Public Health Department faced as it worked through its first year of transition after consolidating three local public health districts into a unified public health organization. The challenges involved implementing new overall strategic decisions, adjusting personnel and […]

Measuring the authority of local public health directors in the context of organizational structure: An exploratory, multimodal approach

This article examines the relationship between organizational structure and authority of local public health directors based on data collected from Minnesota local health directors. It illustrates that emerging practice-based research networks can successfully collaborate on small-scale research projects with immediate application for systems development. Study findings are reportedly being used by local public health officials […]

City of Worcester Task Force on Public Health Recommendations to the City Manager

This article describes the findings of a Public Health Task Force convened by Worcester City Manager. The task force presented a strategic framework for guiding future public health decision making. The report includes proposed new mission and vision statements, four strategic goals (each with brief findings and recommended priorities), a new Board of Health Governance model, […]

RE-ACT Podcast

This podcast by the Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) and the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PHPBRN) presents an interview between Dr. Paul Halverson and Dr. Justeen Hyde, Co-Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN), discussing cross-jurisdictional sharing. The rationale for interest in CJS is discussed as are results from […]

Coping with Crisis: How are Local Governments Reinventing Themselves in the Wake of the Great Recession?

This ICMA sponsored paper rests on the assumption that persisting economic hard times will eventually require managers and governing boards to adopt service delivery and budget balancing strategies beyond the typical “business as usual” approaches used in past recessions. According to the results of the research: 1) Most approaches are aimed at cutting expenditures rather […]

County Manager’s Guide to Shared Services in Local Government

Budget stress in the wake of the recent recession has been an incentive for many U.S. local officials to explore new cooperative relationships with neighboring jurisdictions. County governments are in a strategic position to develop shared service projects and interlocal agreements for service delivery. This web-based article provides an overview of and introduction to shared […]

Center for Sharing Public Health Services

This presentation is part of a panel discussion entitled, “You’re Not Alone: Dialogue about Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing.” The discussion occurred during the National Association of County and City Health Officials annual meeting on July 12, 2012, in Los Angeles, CA. It discusses how cross-jurisdictional sharing (CJS) of public health services can increase efficiency and effectiveness. It […]