State procurement law: facilitating the collaboration between health department and school of public health.

The mark of an "academic health department" includes shared activity by academic and practice partners sustained over time. Despite a long history of productive interactivity, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health often faced administrative hurdles in contracting for projects of mutual interest. Seeking to overcome these hurdles, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health negotiated a Master Agreement on the basis of statutes designating both as "public procurement units.

Cross-sector leadership development for preparedness.

After fall 2001, scientists and professionals recognized the importance of integrating public health with traditional first-response professions in planning and training for disasters. However, operationalizing this approach among professionals in the field confronted barriers that were both inter-cultural and jurisdictional. The Pennsylvania Preparedness Leadership Institute (PPLI) is a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Preparedness.

Developing a local comprehensive environment and health tracking system: using what we know to improve health and the environment.

Recent national reports have highlighted the absence of a coordinated local, state, and national environmental health tracking system. Local environmental health agencies are struggling to design and implement data systems that will allow them to evaluate environmental exposures ecological trends, and health outcomes in order to formulate more effective prevention strategies. This paper articulates the need for local environment and health tracking systems, discusses efforts under way around the nation, and describes the initiative being undertaken in one county health department to address this need.

A model for public health workforce development using the National Public Health Performance Standards Program.

Workforce development programs in public health should link improvements in workers' performance with improvements in their agencies' performance. The "ten essential services" of public health provide criteria for measuring both individual worker training (as in workforce competency standards) and agency performance (as in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Public Health Performance Standards Program). This shared foundation was the basis for a model strategic training program developed for use in a 500-employee urban county health department.

New approaches to safe drinking water.

Up to half the population of some states in the United States drink water from small systems not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. The quality of the drinking water from these systems is generally unknown and may be suspect. In many jurisdictions, private wells are the primary source of water.

The perceived impact of privatization on local health departments.

Objectives: This article presents nationally representative data on the effects of privatization on local health departments (LHDs).

Methods: A stratified representative national sample of 380 LHDs was drawn from a national list of 2488 departments. Telephone interviews were conducted with 347 LHD directors.