Public health strengthening infrastructure grant (OPM) - the covid-19 pandemic strained public health resources and highlighted the existing gaps and shortcomings in meeting public health new and…

Public health strengthening infrastructure grant (OPM) - the covid-19 pandemic strained public health resources and highlighted the existing gaps and shortcomings in meeting public health new and current demands. Weak infrastructures in systems, staff, protocols, and emergency procedures sent negative rippling effects into our community. A strengthening and growing infrastructure project will enable public health to continue to face the effects of covid-19, recruit and hire for our staffing gaps in our infrastructure at large across the division, train and sustain consistent seasoned staff. We also can continue to assess and align ourselves with current best public health practices by use of performance plans within our accreditation standards. By use of a cross cutting needs assessment of our data informatics, this project will also highlight weaknesses and in turn allow US to identify and implement modernization of our data reporting structure to an efficient evolving system with support staff that will have lasting effects into the future. With this three-prong approach of, increasing public health crosscutting staff, implementing a robust informatic system, and having long-term system and procedures implemented for the future, we will successfully accelerate future prevention preparedness, improve public health outcomes, and decrease future response time for public health emergencies.