Report Of The Sanitary Commission Of Massachusetts (LBOH)

Public health services is defined as a “field of study that examines the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services within communities, and the impact of these services on public health”(Mays GP). The study of local public health structure and practice in the United States comes back to 1850, when Lemuel Shattuck, who has been known as the original designer of the governmental public health organization, wrote the Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts (NACCHO. Accreditation Preparation Webpage). Even though the report was ignored for some time, eventually in the late nineteenth century it influenced the development of state and local public health activities. By the twentieth century, there were health departments

There are more than 3,000 Local boards of health across the United States and 41 states have been identified as having a LBOH which can serve different geographic jurisdictions and the most common are at the county or city level. Generally, the mission of LBOHs is to protect and promote the health of the community. LBOHs engage in a range of activities, most often associated with the working of a local health department, including budget approval; strategic planning for organization and community priorities; proposing and approving public health regulations; conducting community health assessments; pursuing grant funding opportunities; developing and accessing board governance styles [NALBOH Profile, 2011]. The capacity and resources of LBOHs and the local health departments which are associate to them, will determine the range of activities and degree of of collaboration they can offer to the community. These requirements reflect the principle that many critical health problems are best handled by local officials familiar with local conditions. Hence, given the key role LBOHs often play in determining local response to the public health climate, it is important to understand their role in the public health

Based on an extensive literature and website review of public health and services provided by local board of health, survey questions were developed regarding the perception of the local board of health of their community health and the resources available. The survey was pilot tested among a small group of local board of health leaders and public health providers in the area of CHNA12. The survey was created by survey monkey. The invitation letter to participate in the survey was e-mailed to the LBOHs leaders. The invited respondents were asked to access the survey by clicking on a hyperlink to open the electronic survey. In general the survey sought the dominant health issues and barriers of each community and the effect of those issues in their community. The survey took 10-15 min to complete and participation was completely voluntary. The survey remained accessible for respondents to complete for 4 weeks due to the school holiday time and snowstorms during which the survey was implemented. In addition follow-up reminder email was sent to LBOH leaders every other week seeking completion by non-respondents and thanking those who previously had completed the survey. .
One-on-one interviews with representative of local board of health departments and public health nurses and school nurses are conducted. The invitation for interview was sent through e-mail and interviews lasted an average of 40 minutes.