Public health workforce, infrastructure, and data modernization development. - the virginia beach department of public health (VBDPH) serves to promote health, prevent disease, and protect the…

Public health workforce, infrastructure, and data modernization development. - the virginia beach department of public health (VBDPH) serves to promote health, prevent disease, and protect the environment so that all in virginia beach are empowered to achieve optimal health and well-being. VBDPH is one of 35 districts of the virginia department of health (VDH) and functions as a state-city cooperative health service agency. VBDPH delivers a variety of public health services through its organization of approximately 113 employees and 80 contractors to a large population of over 450,000. Because of the size and diversity of its population, virginia beach is uniquely positioned as an anchor city in coastal virginia and is poised to become a regional leader in the advancement of public health. The covid-19 response highlighted the gaps that public health professionals have long described. These include things like; workforce preparedness and infrastructure support for rapid expansion, communications resources to grow partnerships, development of skilled personnel, and better leveraging technology in support of foundational public health activities. Therefore, in response to CDC-RFA-OE22-2203, VBDPH is applying for $12,197,690.32 in federal funding over a five-year period to strengthen, transform, and modernize its workforce and infrastructure. Looking beyond the immediate covid-19 exigencies on our local public health system, we will direct this transformational investment into the core competencies of our health department in the service of coastal virginia. In prior years, VBDPH began the process of applying for accreditation with the public health accreditation board (PHAB) however these efforts have been hampered due to funding challenges, workforce and leadership turnover and the covid-19 response. This unique funding opportunity would allow VBDPH to make a historic investment in our workforce and infrastructure and better support our community by providing the essential public health services as demonstrated through the PHAB accreditation process. With an emphasis on workforce support and infrastructure development, we have identified twenty positions required to meet the scope of work laid out in our grant proposal. These activities center mostly on recruiting and hiring new public health staff, retaining and supporting the current public health workforce, and expanding public health service delivery in our community. The request for three care coordinators, three lab technicians, and one occupational health nurse underscores our commitment to scaling our client-centric operations to better serve the virginia beach health district. These hiring gains are only made possible via additional support staff including office service specialists, financial assistants, and a dedicated grant accountant. Additionally, we are requesting support for the essential technology, travel costs, work supplies and space that would support these positions. We are also requesting funding for key software investments that would support our community outreach and emergency preparedness and response work while integrating with and not duplicating any state or federal systems or efforts around data modernization. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we are requesting specific funding in support of financial incentives for recruitment and retention of the public health workforce to support the dedicated professionals who protect and improve the health of our virginia beach community. Given our commitment to applying for and securing PHAB accreditation, VBDPH has identified the comprehensive accreditation process as an ideal basis from which to build out all eight core foundational capabilities and bolster programmatic activities in all five foundational areas. The funds made available by OE22-2203 will allow VBDPH to fully capitalize on the expertise shared by PHAB, naccho, and VDH to implement the critically important transformations to our P