Culture shift: strengthening the role of environmental health in public health performance improvement efforts.

NEHA strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column from the Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of theJournal. In this column, EHSB and guest authors from across CDC will highlight a variety of concerns, opportunities, challenges, and successes that we all share in environmental public health.

Building and measuring infrastructure and capacity for community health assessment and health improvement planning in Florida.

Background: COMPASS (Comprehensive Assessment, Strategic Success) is the Florida Department of Health's community health assessment and health improvement planning initiative. Since 2002, COMPASS built state and county health department infrastructure to support a comprehensive, systematic, and integrated approach to community health assessment and planning.

Methods: To assess the capacity of Florida's 67 county health departments (CHDs) to conduct community health assessment and planning and to identify training and technical assistance needs, COMPASS surveyed the CHDs using a Web-based instrument annually from 2004 through 2008.

Roles of local public health agencies within the state public health system.

Objectives: In this study we assessed the structure and function of local and district health agencies throughout the United States. We compared these findings with those from a previous national assessment done a decade earlier.

Methods: We surveyed the state health officers of all 50 states in the summer of 2001 in regard to the structures and functions of their state's local and district health agencies.

Implementation of an Internet-based geographic information system: the Florida experience.

Increasingly, Web-based data dissemination systems are being used to provide public health information. This article describes Florida's experience in augmenting a Web-based data query system, Florida CHARTS, with a geographic information system component. As with any systems development, users' needs guide the product.

Structure and functions of state public health agencies.

Objectives: We assessed the structure and functions of state health departments throughout the United States and compared our findings with those from a previous national assessment conducted in 1990.

Methods: In 2001, we sent a survey to the state health officers of all 50 states. The survey asked about the structure and functions of the state health agency.