National Public Health Performance Standards Program

While both medical care and public health work to improve the lives of many people, there are several distinctions between the two fields. Healthcare providers such as nurses and doctors are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses for individual patients. The care ranges from minor injuries to severe and chronic diseases. Meanwhile, public health strives to improve the well-being of a population. Public health advocates for the overall “promotion and prevention” of diseases before it even becomes an issue for healthcare providers. Public health encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle choices and strives to control the outbreak of diseases. Although public health is often overlooked in the grand scale of medical care, it is undoubtedly the main aspect in ensuring that the overall health of a community is prospering.

According to" Public Health Infrastructure - Healthy People" (n.d.), "Public health infrastructure includes 3 key components that enable a public health organization at the Federal, Tribal, State, or local level to deliver public health services. These components are:

HC1: Public health is here to assist in the prevention of disease, promote health and continually adding longevity to life (WHO, 2015). It is broken down into a few different functions. There are assessments and monitoring of different health communities and the populations which are at risk (WHO, 2015). Second, would be how policies are designed to solve certain problems on the local and national levels (WHO, 2015). And last, would be to make sure that all populations have adequate access to health care and that it is cost effective (WHO, 2015). Quality improvements is increasing its approach to get maximize services that will be effective while also minimizing the costs (HHS, 2011). When making improvements one must first identify strategies and characteristics that are essential to the concern (HHS, 2011). Once that is completed, apply the quality improvements to produce a measurable improvement (HHS, 2011). This will show whether there were improvements in efficiency, effectiveness as well as performance and outcomes (HHS, 2011). Another improvement would be making the role that environmental health has to give more of an impact in public

The following international, national, and local agencies are aimed at keeping the public safe while seeking optimum health and well-being for all citizens involved. They provide assessments, develop policies, assurance, meet unmet needs, and enable access to health care (McCowan, 2013). They hone communities’ capabilities to respond effectually to health issues by shielding and endorsing the health of the community and its residents (McKenzie & Pinger, 2016-b).

The national system responsible for the health and welfare of United States citizens is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “HHS is charged with regulating health care and overseeing the health status of Americans” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008, p. 56). A newer division, Office of Public Health Preparedness was added after September 11, 2011 to assist with preparing for bioterrorism at the state and national level (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008). The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) has eight agencies and is

Public health is positioned as one in light of the fact that public health is central to 21st century medicinal services and shares the same general objectives as whatever is left of the health care framework - lessening sudden death and minimizing the impacts of ailment, incapacity, and damage furthermore gives financial and social advantages to the area, due to some degree to expanded profit.

The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives

The Department of Public Health, since its inception has provided services that are geared toward the protection of lives, mostly that of public awareness – through education, partnership and community engagement, professional development, research, and prevention of diseases. Since the welfare of the public is SFDPH

Despite the fact that APHA is the voice of public health countrywide, the Association cannot function well without the assistance of its affiliates. For the past one century, the Association’s 54 regional and state public health affiliates have been championing similar goals as APHA to protect, promote, and advocate for the health of the public. The Association’s affiliates are established autonomously with their own infrastructure, processes, policies, and procedures. On an annual basis, the Association’s affiliates carry out their activities through program development, annual meetings, professional development, and continuing education (American Public Health Association ,

Today, many Americans are affected by health care decisions made without their prior knowledge. More than likely most Americans are unsure how those decisions are decided and who is responsible for making those decisions that ultimately affect how health care is administered. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government’s principle agency for protecting the health of all Americans and for providing essential human services, especially to those who are unable to help themselves. HHS administrators over two hundred programs and it accounts for almost forty percent of all United States federal government spending. HHS mission is to keep Americans safe and healthy through effective health and human service programs. The department has five strategic goals: strengthen health care, advance scientific knowledge and innovation, advance the health, safety, and well-being of the American people, increase efficacy, transparency, and accountability of HHS programs and strengthen the Nation’s health and human service infrastructure and workforce (Department of Health and Human Services, (n.d.).

‘Public health is everyone’s business’ illustrates Jones (2012, p.2). The Faculty of Public Health regard public health as a combination of health protection, health advancement and promoting health (Griffiths and Dark, 2006, cited in Jones, 2012, p.6).

It was very fascinating to learn that this case study of what was happening in Chicago was fairly analogous to the public health changes throughout the nation. After reading the case study, one can be certain that the history of Public health has certainly had it’s share of ups and downs.

State health departments are responsible for multiple areas in regards to providing health care services to the people of their state as designated by the U.S. Constitution. (Niles, 2018, p.98) One main role of the state health department is to "monitor communities to identify health problems". (Niles, 2018, p.98) This includes creating and implementing laws and regulations to promote the well being of their citizens, and to work with federal programs to use them on the state level. According to the American Public Health Association, "The state health department's mission to advance community health is carried forward through four basic functions: (1) health surveillance, planning, and program development; (2) promotion of local health coverage;

Protecting the public’s health historically has been a state and local responsibility. However, the growing threat of bioterrorism has highlighted the importance of a strong public health infrastructure to the nation’s homeland security and has focused increased attention on the preparedness of the public health system (Frist, 2011). Since the 2001 anthrax attacks Congress has passed new legislation to increase the strength of the nation’s public health system thus the funding has also rapidly increased to meet the potential demand. There is an ongoing debate however, as to what level of contribution local, state, and federal agency’s feel is an appropriate level of ongoing public health investments.

This paper defines and explains the six core functions of epidemiology: Public health surveillance, field investigation, analytic studies, evaluations, linkages, and policy development. The core functions of epidemiology lay down a foundation on which epidemiologists can begin to work from. This paper will look at the benefits of incorporating all six of these functions into a working plan when health officials, medical personnel, first responders, etc., encounter a disease or illness that needs to be identified, treated and contained.