Public health departments and systems continue to embrace new social, data and technological, economic, environmental, and political factors that impact public health system capacity, service delivery, and scope. Even with this, statewide systems continue to embrace approaches to transform public health through the Foundational Public Health Services – a framework that describes, at minimum, what should be available everywhere for public health to work anywhere and is the responsibility of governmental public health.
One key strategy in addressing these challenges and advancing transformation efforts is using service and resource sharing tools and approaches. Service and resource sharing across agencies is when insights, expertise, techniques, and tools are shared across organizational boundaries. This may include health department to health department, regional or statewide sharing, cross-sector, and/or inter-agency sharing.
As systems address public health service delivery, workforce retention, funding priorities, and efficiency, PHAB offers tools to assess shared resource solutions. Sharing services and resources allows communities to solve problems that cannot be solved — or easily solved — by a single organization. By sharing staff, expertise, funds, and programs, health departments achieve more together than alone. This practice can increase effectiveness by enhancing the quality of existing services or increasing capacity and efficiency by optimizing the value of each dollar invested in delivering public health services. It can generate economies of scale and enable health departments and partners to strengthen foundational activities and/or offer programs that otherwise would not be feasible.
The Staffing Checklist supports health departments and systems understand and evaluate the appropriateness of sharing staff among two or more jurisdictions and to communicate about these arrangements with elected officials and other decision makers. This tool may be helpful in thinking about workforce retention efforts today.
This Service Sharing Roadmap is designed to help guide the development and implementation of service and resource sharing arrangements, and provides guidance across a variety of domains to explore when assessing and implementing shared approaches. This includes considerations when setting up MOUs/MOAs.
Visit our Service and Resource Sharing webpages to learn more about this approach and how PHAB can support you today. Reach out to PHABTA@phaboard.org with questions.
About the Author
- Reena Chudgar, MPH, is the Director of Public Health Systems and Services at the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) supporting implementation of the Public Health National Center for Innovations and Center for Sharing Public Health Services efforts. Reena joined PHAB/PHNCI in April 2019 and engages with health departments and communities in using innovation as a tool for transformation. Her work centers around strategy and program implementation, and is passionate about social and systems change, addressing root causes of historical and current racial and health inequities, and local and people-centered decision making. Prior to joining PHAB, Reena served as Director for Performance Improvement at the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO), where she supports health departments in fostering partnerships, cross-sector collaboration, community and strategic planning, and more. Reena received a Master of Public Health degree and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University.
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