Standards to Demonstrate Fulfillment of Foundational Public Health Responsibilities

• Plans and initiatives for all areas reflect collaboration with community partners.
• Programs in all areas measure progress, outcomes, and equity impacts, and share findings to guide decision-making and make improvements.
• Professional development includes skills-based training for staff in all areas, including ongoing training in equity-centered, trauma-informed, and evidence-based public health practices.
• Activities for all areas meet appropriate statutory requirements and align with state and federal guidelines. 

• Collect and analyze data on access to care, to identify gaps and barriers including, but not limited to, gaps in services, affordability, transportation barriers, and workforce availability.
• Use data on access to care to inform planning, advocate for policy change, guide resource allocation, and collaborate on improvement initiatives (e.g., behavioral health access, provider shortages).
• Adhere to all relevant public health laws and guidance, understanding mandatory responsibilities.
• Support (or lead when appropriate) coordination of access-to-care efforts across sectors.
• Partner with providers and health systems to improve access to primary care and patient-centered care.

Definitions for this area: Access to and linkage with clinical care

• Track and communicate population health trends for chronic disease and injury, to inform partners and the public.
• Use policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) and evidence-based approaches to address chronic disease and injury.

Definitions for this area: Chronic disease and injury prevention

• Align data collection with applicable local, state, and federal requirements, using guidance from the Minnesota Infectious Disease Operations Guide, or MIDOG, section D.
• Implement and tailor communication strategies for various audiences. (MIDOG, Section F)
• During infectious disease response, coordinate and document messaging, outreach, and response activities with communicable disease partners (governmental and non-governmental).
• Identify and clearly define infectious disease roles (as outlined in MIDOG); staff are prepared to perform them.
• Maintain the statewide immunization information system (MIIC) and use it to support immunization coverage.

Definitions for this area: Communicable disease control

• Align work and activities with the current food, pools, and lodging delegation agreement language and update practices accordingly (for delegated agencies only).
• Train staff responsible for public health nuisance response in enforcement and abatement.
• Guide enforcement and abatement activities with clear, documented policies and procedures in accordance with statutory and, where applicable, delegation requirements.
• Ensure continuity of essential programs and activities during periods of decreased funding or staffing shortages.
• Tailor education, outreach, and technical assistance related to prevention, mitigation, abatement, and compliance to meet the needs of specific communities or audiences.
• Ensure environmental public health services and coordination efforts address hazards from environmental factors to ensure readiness across communities, particularly for emergency response situations.

Definitions for this area: Environmental public health

• Use data to align and adapt programs and activities.
• Use community input (including service recipients) to inform maternal, child, and family health programs and initiatives.
• Align maternal, child, and family health activities with appropriate statutory requirements. 

Definitions for this area: Maternal, child, and family health

• Establish a performance management system. (P)
• Implement a performance management system.
• Align performance measures, where appropriate, with relevant local, state, Tribal, and federal strategies.
• Base programs and interventions on the best available evidence. (P)
• Implement quality improvement projects are implemented. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Accountability and performance management

• Develop a community health assessment in collaboration with partners and community, using a variety of data from many sources, and including strengths and assets. (P)
• Collect non-surveillance population health data. (P)
• Participate in data sharing with other entities. (P)
• Analyze and use data to draw public health conclusions. (P)
• Maintain surveillance systems. (P)
• Ensure 24/7 access to resources for rapid detection, investigation, containment, and mitigation of health problems and environmental public health hazards. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Assessment and surveillance

• Implement health communication strategies to encourage actions to promote health. (P)
• Maintain procedures to provide ongoing, nonemergency communication outside the health department. (P)
• Maintain a risk communication plan and a process for urgent 24/7 communications with response partners (P) (outline roles, protocols, and messaging strategies for emergencies and public health threats).

Definitions for this capability: Communications

• Participate in a community health coalition to promote health equity (convener or participant). (P)
• Train staff on authentically engaging community.
• Maintain ongoing, trust-based relationships with community leaders, beyond crisis events or project-specific outreach.
• Collaborate with other sectors to improve access to social services. (P)
• Implement strategies to remove barriers to community member participation.
• Adopt a community health improvement plan. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Community partnership development

• Maintain a public health emergency operations plan (EOP).
• Conduct exercises and use after action reports and improvement plans (AAR-IPs) to improve preparedness and response. (P)
• Using Incident Command System (ICS) language, structure, and guidelines, maintain at least one staff person with readiness, response, and recovery expertise in a leadership position, and includes support activities in position descriptions of additional staff.
• Staff have at a minimum, a basic understanding and training for responding to and recovering from an emergency.
• Ensure operations during response. (P)
• Maintain and implement a process for urgent 24/7 communications with response partners. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Emergency preparedness and response

• Develop a shared understanding amongst staff and community members about the elements driving health and related inequities in their jurisdictions.
• Document mechanism to include health equity and environmental conditions, such as social determinants of health, in planning, program strategy, policy development, staff training, and resource development.
• Manage operational policies, including those related to equity. (P)
• Address factors that contribute to specific populations' higher health risks and poorer health outcomes. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Equity

• Adopt a department-wide strategic plan. (P)
• Maintain public health director or supervisor designated to provide oversight of public health functions; ideally this position is full time.
• Ensure the community health services administrator meets requirements under Minn. Stat. § 145A.04, subd. 2 and Minn. R. 4736.0110.
• Support programs and operations through an information management infrastructure (P) (with a built, internal system or through a vendor contract).
• Protect information and data systems through security and confidentiality policies. (P)
• Recruit a qualified and diverse health department workforce. (P)
• Develop and implement a workforce development plan and strategies. (P)
• Provide professional and career development opportunities for staff. (P)
• Have a financial management system.
• Oversee grants and contracts. (P)
• Manage financial systems. (P)
• Access and use legal services in planning, implementing, and enforcing public health initiatives (either through the organization’s legal services or through contracted legal counsel). (P)
• At the leadership level, annually discuss and recognize the presence and scope of legal services with the community health board.
• Maintain a human resource function. (P)
• Communicate with governance routinely and on an as-needed basis. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Organizational competencies

• Consistently use community data and assessments to shape policy priorities.
• Examine and contribute to improving policies and laws. (P)
• Conduct enforcement actions. (P)

Definitions for this capability: Policy development and support