The Public Health National Center for Innovations: An Initial Qualitative Evaluation.

CONTEXT: The Public Health National Center for Innovations (PHNCI) was launched in 2015 as a division of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) to serve as a hub for fostering public health innovation and transformation. OBJECTIVES: We explored perspectives of key informants to assess PHNCI's work in its first 5 years, including implementation of activities, outputs, accomplishments, and opportunities. DESIGN: This qualitative study involved a Web site review; secondary document review; 15 interviews with 17 key informants purposively sampled from 2 groups-PHNCI and PHAB staff and leadership (PHNCI respondents), and external partners and collaborators (external respondents); and thematic analysis of qualitative data. SETTING: United States. RESULTS: PHNCI implemented its planned activities over the past 5 years-including grant programs and learning communities; large-scale public health initiatives; conferences, events, and convenings; webinar trainings; and resources, tools, and materials-resulting in more than 150 outputs. According to key informants, PHNCI's major accomplishments were as follows: contributed to an increased understanding and awareness of innovation in the public health field; provided grants and learning communities to support innovation; developed and disseminated materials to help practitioners innovate; established partnerships and promoted cross-sector collaboration; supported systems transformation; incorporated innovation into public health accreditation; and focused efforts to advance health equity. CONCLUSIONS: Going forward, PHNCI should continue to prioritize its core activities that support public health innovation and transformation; expand its work by addressing innovation in new public health topic areas; strengthen and expand its cross-sector work, partnerships, and activities to advance health equity and antiracism; and increase its visibility and reach, particularly within other sectors. Continued commitment and leadership are important for strengthening the capacity of the public health system to innovate, respond to ongoing and emerging public health threats and challenges, and advance health equity.

Opioid Litigation: Lessons Learned from a Retail Pharmacy Settlement.

As the opioid epidemic continues in the United States and ongoing litigation seeks to hold contributors responsible, state governments have initiated lawsuits against retail pharmacies for their role in contributing to the crisis. This article summarizes an action the State of West Virginia brought against CVS, which the parties recently settled in the fall of 2022. This article examines the unique position of retail pharmacies like CVS, which often serve as both distributors and dispensers, in contributing to the oversaturation and illicit diversion of opioid prescriptions. The article concludes by assessing the viability of potential causes of action against retail pharmacies in opioid litigation.

Exploring the Linkage Between Accreditation Outcomes and Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Public health emergency preparedness is a critical health department function. The national public health accreditation program may enhance public health preparedness by building the capabilities and overall capacity of health departments and also by improving capabilities specific to preparedness. This study presents findings from a survey sent to health departments 1 year after achieving accreditation, with a focus on accreditation outcomes related to public health preparedness. Between April 2014 and February 2020, 214 health departments responded to the survey. Most respondents indicated that accreditation had positively influenced their health department's performance within each of the selected topic areas that may influence public health preparedness: workforce development; quality improvement efforts; use of evidence and data to drive decisions; and partnerships, accountability, and credibility among external stakeholders. Enhancing overall health department capacity through accreditation may support the ability of health departments to prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies.

Are We Ready to Build Back "Healthier?" An Exploratory Analysis of U.S. State-Level Disaster Recovery Plans.

As communities recover from disasters, it is crucial to understand the extent to which states are prepared to support the recovery of health systems and services. This need has been emphasized by the United States' experience with COVID-19. This study sought to assess public health activities in state disaster recovery implementation plans. In this exploratory, descriptive study, state-wide disaster recovery implementation plans were collected from emergency management agency websites and verified (n = 33). We reviewed and coded the recovery plans to identify health-related activities. While 70% and 64% of reviewed plans included activities to address short-term healthcare and behavioral health needs, respectively, one-third or less of the plans included activities to address long-term healthcare and behavioral health needs. Further, plans have limited descriptions of health-related data collection, analysis, or data-driven processes. Additional evidence-informed public health requirements and activities are needed in disaster recovery implementation plans. State disaster recovery plans would benefit from additional description of public health roles, responsibilities, and activities, as well as additional plans for collecting and analyzing public health data to drive recovery decision making and activities. Plans should include approaches for ongoing evaluation of recovery activities.

Impact of Accreditation on Health Department Financial Resources.

CONTEXT: There is limited data available on the financial benefits of public health accreditation. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the financial impacts reported by public health departments as a result of participating in the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) national accreditation program. DESIGN: Data from an ongoing survey of outcomes among health departments accredited for 1 year were linked to PHAB administrative data on health department characteristics to examine self-reported financial impacts of accreditation as of June 2020. SETTING: Accredited public health departments in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Leadership from 214 unique state, local, Tribal, and Army installation health departments that had been accredited for 1 year by PHAB. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Improved utilization of resources, increased competitiveness for funding opportunities, and new funding resulting from accreditation. RESULTS: One year following accreditation, 57% of all responding health departments reported improved utilization of resources whereas less than half reported improved competitiveness for funding (39%) and new funding (23%) as a result of accreditation. Health departments reporting new funding as a result of accreditation, compared with those that did not report new funding, were also more likely to report other outcomes from accreditation, including improved staff competencies, increased health department capacity to address health priorities and provide high-quality programs and services, increased use of evidence-based practices, new opportunities for external partnerships and collaboration, improved understanding of the health department's role among governing entities and policy makers, and improved credibility. Accredited local health departments (LHDs) with annual budgets less than $10 million reported new funding more often than LHDs with larger annual budgets. CONCLUSIONS: Accredited health departments that reported new funding were also more likely to report other outcomes of accreditation, including improved staff competencies, new partnerships, and improved credibility. More research is needed to further understand the relationship between accreditation and financial impacts.

Building Back Better: Local Health Department Engagement and Integration of Health Promotion into Hurricane Harvey Recovery Planning and Implementation.

Disaster recovery provides an opportunity to build healthier and more resilient communities. However, opportunities and challenges encountered by local health departments (LHDs) when integrating health considerations into recovery have yet to be explored. Following Hurricane Harvey, 17 local health and emergency management officials from 10 agencies in impacted Texas, USA jurisdictions were interviewed to describe the types and level of LHD engagement in disaster recovery planning and implementation and the extent to which communities leveraged recovery to build healthier, more resilient communities. Interviews were conducted between December 2017 and January 2018 and focused on if and how their communities were incorporating public health considerations into the visioning, planning, implementation, and assessment phases of disaster recovery. Using a combined inductive and deductive approach, we thematically analyzed interview notes and/or transcripts. LHDs reported varied levels of engagement and participation in activities to support their community's recovery. However, we found that LHDs rarely articulated or informed decision makers about the health impacts of recovery activities undertaken by other sectors. LHDs would benefit from additional resources, support, and technical assistance designed to facilitate working across sectors and building resilience during recovery.