The Bureau of Environmental and Local Public Health is comprised of two sections: Environmental Health and Local Public Health Performance. The bureau focuses on assisting local boards of health and other public health partners to address health disparities, health priorities, and to provide technical assistance on environmental health issues and epidemiology and surveillance of environmental health-related diseases. With the bureau’s enhanced focus on technical assistance, the bureau ensures that local public health systems are well-equipped to tackle various health challenges and improve overall community health outcomes.
Local Public Health Performance services include:
Promote and support the development of the public health systems.
Improve local public health’s capability to address health priorities and disparities.
Advance the goal of healthy people in healthy communities.
Local Public Health Performance Key Roles
The Local Public Health Performance (LPHP) Team promotes and supports the development of the public health system to improve local public health's capability to address health priorities and health disparities, ultimately leading to healthy people in healthy communities.
Consultation and Technical Assistance: Provide essential consultation and technical assistance to Local Boards of Health (LBOH), Local Public Health Agencies (LPHA), and local leaders.
Priority Setting and Service Development: Assist in setting priorities and developing quality and effective services which are community-driven, and culturally appropriate services based on community health needs assessments.
Education and Orientation: Through orientation, education, and technical assistance, they equip Local Board of Health members and Public Health Administrators with the necessary information to perform their roles effectively.
By focusing on these areas, RCHCs ensure local public health systems are responsive, efficient, and tailored to the unique needs of their county.
Population Health Strategies: Provide technical assistance with needs assessment, policy development, health promotion, partnership development, and reporting.
Foundational Capabilities: Offer support on agency operations, communication, partnership development, planning, programming, and reporting.
10 Essential Public Health Services: Ensure these core services are effectively implemented and maintained within public health agencies.
By focusing on these areas, Population Health Advisors help public health agencies enhance their strategies and capabilities to improve overall health outcomes. ​
Strategic Planning: A deliberate and flexible process of defining where the agency is today (current state), where it is wants to be (future ideal state) and how to get there (the strategic plan) through a common understanding of the mission, vision, priorities, goals and SMARTIE objectives.
Performance Management: The strategic practice of using data to establish performance measures and consistent analysis of those measures with the desired outcome of improving public health through data-driven strategies.
Quality Improvement: An intentional and continuous framework to better understand processes, develop and test innovations, and continuously analyze results to achieve measurable quality improvements for the entire population base.
By focusing on these areas, Planning and Performance Consultants ensure that public health agencies are well-equipped to meet their goals and improve the health of their communities.
Workforce Assessments: Evaluate the current state of the workforce to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Workforce Development Plan Development: Create comprehensive plans to address immediate and long-term workforce needs.
Recruitment and Retention Strategies: Develop and implement strategies to attract and retain public health professionals.
Onboarding: Ensure new hires are effectively integrated into the organization with proper training and support.
Succession Planning: Prepare for future leadership transitions by identifying and developing potential leaders within the organization.
Public Health Training/Professional Development: Provide ongoing training and development opportunities to enhance skills and knowledge.
Leadership Training/Professional Development: Offer specialized training programs to develop leadership capabilities among public health professionals.
By focusing on these areas, Workforce Development Consultants ensure the public health workforce is capable, resilient, and well-equipped to meet the challenges of their roles.
Public health strives to improve the quality of life for all Iowans by assuring access to evidence-based population-health programs, services and activities in the following areas:
Promote healthy living
Prevent injuries and violence
Protect against environmental hazards
Assure access to quality health services
Prevent epidemics and the spread of disease
Improve and support public health performance
Prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies
Iowa's Local Public Health Infographic - provides a quick overview of Iowa's Local Public Health agencies. (Data from the FY23 Local Public Health Systems Survey.)
Local Board of Health
Local Boards of Health (LBOH) have responsibility for public health in their jurisdiction. They support local public health vision, mission, and advocacy and encourage community involvement in setting public health priorities. Their dedicated leadership ensures the success of meeting the opportunities and challenges within public health.
National Association for Local Boards of Health(NALBOH) - informs, guides, and is the national voice for boards of health. In today’s public health system, the leadership role of boards of health makes them an essential link between public health services and a healthy community.
Sunshine Advisories -resource for citizens as well as local governmental employees and officials. The "Sunshine Advisories" discuss basic requirements and the application of Iowa's "sunshine" laws.
Iowa Code contains laws written by legislators and signed by the Governor. Iowa Administrative Code (IAC) are the rules containing the details that accompany the law.
The Iowa Public Health Leadership Academy is a collaborative effort between the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Iowa Department of Public Health. The Academy provides information and training to local board of health and local board of supervisor members to effectively meet the requirements of their roles.
The Academy has hosted fourteen webinars on various public health topics and operational functions. Webinar topics included:
Advancing Policy in Public Health
Confidentiality/HIPAA/Conflict of Interest
Contracts
Ethics and Decision Making in Public Health
Financial Management
Health Equity: Why it Matters and How to Achieve It
Overview of Governmental Public Health System
Performance Improvement
Public Health Law in Iowa
Putting Local in the Local Public Health:Local Roles and Responsibilities
The Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) outlines the unique responsibilities of public health and can be used to explain the vital role of public health in a community; identify capacity and resource gaps; determine the cost for assuring foundational activities; and justify funding needs.
an Operational Skills Workshop series for Local Public Health Agencies. If you have any questions on any of these workshops or are interested in any other topics, please contact your Community Health Consultant. All sessions were held on Zoom and recorded. The recordings are available below:
The following are related to Public Health. Iowa Code contains laws written by legislators and signed by the Governor. Iowa Administrative Code (IAC) are the rules containing the details that accompany the law. This is not an all inclusive list.
These reports provide an overview of Iowa’s local public health system and results of the qualitative and quantitative data collected through the annual Local Public Health Systems Survey. Information from these reports can be used by a variety of audiences to not only gain a better understanding of the local governmental public health system, but to also inform planning activities for future public health initiatives.
