Resource Summary
Seven rural counties–Barber, Comanche, Edwards, Harper, Kingman, Kiowa and Pratt–collaborate through the South Central Kansas Coalition for Public Health (SKCPH). While each county has its own health department, they work together through the SKCPH to offer three shared public health programs in the region: family planning, emergency preparedness and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Each program is offered in all seven counties, but only one county must provide the administrative oversight for each program. This reduces the administrative burden on the other health departments while allowing the staff coordinating the program to become specialists in each program area. The counties and health departments receive many benefits through the sharing arrangement, such as more efficient administration of the shared programs and increased collaboration and knowledge transfer between the counties.
Available online: http://www.khi.org/assets/uploads/news/13840/sckphs_casestudy.pdf