Introduction to Public Health Administration

Study Notes

Students will be able to define public health.
Students will be able to define health services administration.
Students will be able to compare clinical and public health approaches to healthcare.
Students will be able to identify roles of public health professionals.
Students will be able to list the importance of public health administration.
Students will be able to identify principles of public health administration.
Students will be able to identify major disciplines in public health.
Students will be able to describe essential public health services.

There's growing emphasis on a qualified public health workforce.
The workforce includes government, community-based, voluntary organizations, hospital staff, private interests and non-profit sectors.

Public health administration involves planned initiatives for improving population health.
Populations can range from a local neighborhood to an entire nation or region.

Public health is the science that safeguards and enhances the health of individuals and communities.
This involves promoting healthy lifestyles
Investigating illness
Preventing injury, and
Managing infectious diseases.

Public health administration manages public health programs that engage local community populations or regions.
It involves the management of public health agencies or organizations.

Health services administration is the aspect of public health that focuses on the daily management of people and programs.
This ensures efficient and successful organizational operations.

Clinical approach: primarily focuses on diagnosing, treating individual illnesses, and preventative medicine like vaccines, smoking cessation, obesity counseling. The focus is on the individual.
Public health approach: focuses on disease prevention and control in populations. Some overlapping activities exist with clinical medicine, like diagnosing disease outbreaks and treating communicable diseases.
Both clinical and public health are distinct.

Nutrition: Focuses on food, its nutrients, and how consumption affects health and disease.
Reproductive Health: A condition of complete physical, mental, and social well-being related to the reproductive system and its functioning.
Environmental Health: Aims to identify and address environmental factors affecting health, including biological, chemical, social and physical risks, thereby protecting people from harmful exposures.
Health Education: Encourages healthy and voluntary behaviors through educational opportunities.
Epidemiology: Studies the frequency, distribution, and determinants of diseases and health issues in populations.
Health Economics: Focuses on effective use of resources (personnel, material, financial) in the healthcare sector.
Biostatistics: Uses statistical methods to analyze biological problems, especially in medicine.

Monitor community health status to identify potential problems.
Diagnose and investigate community health problems and hazards.
Educate and empower people about health issues, especially at-risk and marginalized groups.
Collaborate with community partners to address health issues.
Develop policies and plans for individual and community health.

Monitor health status: Identifying and addressing community health problems, including water quality, wastewater treatment, mosquito surveillance, immunizations, HIV testing, food-borne illnesses, diabetes screening, child health data collection, and child lead poisoning.
Inform, Educate, Empower: Community health education, HIV/AIDS curriculum, child abuse/domestic violence education and educational programs, public education about well construction.
Develop policies: Policies related to public health oversight, community health planning, strategic planning, housing needs, and health investigations.
Enforce laws and regulations: Ensuring health and safety through hazardous materials and sites inspections, certifications, milk inspections, professional licensure and regulations, food inspections, and the enforcement of health-related rules
Evaluate effectiveness and accessibility Assessing quality of personal and population-based health services, providing performance-plan monitoring, and evaluating health programs.

A diagram/model (Los Angeles County Public Health Nursing Practice Model) demonstrates a cyclical process for public health action (assess, diagnose, intervene, and evaluate).