Utah department of health and human services (dhhs) proposal for activities within the strengthening U.S. Public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems grant. - the utah department of…

Utah department of health and human services (dhhs) proposal for activities within the strengthening U.S. Public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems grant. - the utah department of health and human services (dhhs) serves many functions, from juvenile justice to chronic disease. There are many areas for alignment and improvement within the public health system. Dhhs has not had the capacity to conduct comprehensive assessments related to workforce in the recent past. This grant provides an opportunity to assess the current public health system in utah and develop plans to improve the delivery of services to the residents of utah through better staffing practices, strengthened foundations of public health, and modernized data systems. Dhhs's goal for the next 5 years is to strengthen workforce, foundational capabilities, and data modernization in each strategy listed in the grant. A1 workforce: hiring dedicated staff within the public health system to further goals of the grant, including workforce development support staff, a data modernization director and support coordination staff, and staff within the system (supporting local health departments and other partners); conducting needs assessments to learn about workforce needs, identify training opportunities, and explore experiences of workplace culture, as well as to assess response training needs and data system capacity, gaps, and opportunities; building better public health recruitment systems and offering hiring incentives. A2: foundational capabilities: developing plans and agreements with partners to help train and provide additional staff in the event of future public health emergencies; improving existing health communication strategies to more effectively provide health information to diverse populations across the state; enhancing organizational competencies with a focus on equity. A3: data modernization: developing and implementing plans for public health data modernization, including possible implementation of a common electronic health record platform to be used by public health agencies across the state and replacing current systems for communicable disease reporting; and creating a current data management plan, with guidance from CDC, to be updated as new information becomes available.