National Profile of Local Health Departments, 2010

Conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the purpose of this survey of local health departments (LHDs) was to advance and support the development of a database for LHDs to describe and understand their structure, function, and capacities. A core set of questions was submitted to every LHD. In addition, some LHDs received one of two randomly assigned modules of supplemental questions. The core questions covered governance, funding, workforce (staffing levels, occupations employed, top executive education and licensure, and percentages of staff by race and Hispanic origin), LHD activities, and community health assessment and health improvement planning. The surveyed LHD activities include immunization, screening for diseases and conditions, treatment for communicable diseases, maternal and child health, epidemiology and surveillance activities, population-based primary prevention activities, and regulation, inspection and/or licensing activities. Topics covered by Module 1 included quality improvement, familiarity with a voluntary national accreditation program for state and local health departments, sharing of resources with other LHDs, emergency preparedness, and information technology. Module 2 examined human resources, policy-making and advocacy, access to health care services, practice-based research, health impact assessments, public health and law, and use of public health reports.