As budget time rolls around, NCEHSA has found a great reference document. The CDC publishes a comprehensive document that helps standardize and justify Environmental Health state of practice across the country.
Within this self-assessment instrument, an EH administrator can find the 10 essential services performed by any EH division within any state, city or local jurisdiction.
As published in the foreword of this document:
The primary goal of the Environmental Health Public Health Performance Standards (EnvPHPS) is to promote continuous improvement of the national environmental public health system. The implementation of the EnvPHPS is intended to foster improvement at the state, tribal, local, territorial, and national levels through the following three efforts:
- Build capacity to provide the ten Essential Environmental Health Services (EssEnvHS)
- Build community accountability for environmental public health services
- Build consistency of services across EH Systems or programs
EH Systems and programs that utilize the EnvPHPS may expect the following benefits:
- Educating participants about environmental health and the range of services and partners needed to improve the public’s health.
- Improving collaboration of partners to enhance communication, improve coordination of activities and resources, and reduce duplication of services.
- Identifying strengths and gaps that can be addressed through quality improvement efforts.
- Providing a benchmark for environmental public health practice improvements by establishing optimal standards and measures.
- Providing information and data that EH Systems and programs may use to better advocate for changes in policy or resource allocation to improve community environmental health status.
More information can be found at CDC link.