Managing public health in the Army through a standard community health promotion council model.

Context: Public health processes in the US Army remain uncoordinated due to competing lines of command, funding streams and multiple subject matter experts in overlapping public health concerns. The US Army Public Health Command (USAPHC) has identified a standard model for community health promotion councils (CHPCs) as an effective framework for synchronizing and integrating these overlapping systems to ensure a coordinated approach to managing the public health process.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to test a foundational assumption of the CHPC effectiveness theory: the 3 features of a standard CHPC model - a CHPC chaired by a strong leader, ie, the senior commander; a full time health promotion team dedicated to the process; and centralized management through the USAPHC - will lead to high quality health promotion councils capable of providing a coordinated approach to addressing public health on Army installations.