Strengthening public health infrastructure across pennsylvania - historic disinvestment in public health at the federal, state, and local level has stifled hiring and retention of the public health…

Strengthening public health infrastructure across pennsylvania - historic disinvestment in public health at the federal, state, and local level has stifled hiring and retention of the public health workforce and limited investments in infrastructure and data innovation. These challenges, which were exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic, have resulted in a stressed and fractured public health system in pennsylvania and across the country. Funding provided through this opportunity will enable the department to make the critical investments needed to provide comprehensive public health services to all pennsylvanians. Under strategy A1, the pennsylvania department of health (department) will use funding to invest in the current and future public health workforce through strategic interventions to increase hiring and retention with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, improve training and support for staff, increase recruitment of new public health professionals, and strengthen workforce planning, policies, and processes. To ensure the department has the foundational capability to provide essential public health services to all pennsylvanians, funding under strategy A2 will be used to make strategic investments to strengthen performance management, communications, health planning, quality improvement, partnership development, information technology capacity, and health equity. A key component of a robust public health infrastructure is responsive and reliable data. Funding under strategy A3 will be used to continue the department's efforts and investment in data modernization and infrastructure. The critical updates to data infrastructure will improve interoperability of the department's data systems, which will strengthen data sharing with county and municipal health departments and allow the department to better serve the needs of all pennsylvanians, particularly underserved and marginalized populations.