ES 10 – Build and Maintain

Essential Public Health Service 10: Build and maintain a strong organizational infrastructure for public health

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Learn how environmental health programs support Essential Public Health Service 10 and public health accreditation.

These activities support Essential Service 10 (public health organizational infrastructure).
Public health wheel showing essential service 10 in dark color, with equity at the center.

Essential service 10—build and maintain a strong organizational infrastructure for public health— is one of the essential services aligned to the Assurance core function.

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Here are some examples of common activities* that help deliver essential service 10.

Understanding the broader organizational infrastructure and roles that support the public health system, including infrastructure to support environmental health services and programs.

Ensuring contributions of environmental health practice are an integral part of the health department or government system’s strategic vision.

Assessing and allocating human and financial resources needed to conduct environmental health activities (for example, investigations, assessments, inspections, surveillance) with special considerations for changes needed to improve the delivery of services and health outcomes.

Developing sustainable and modernized information management structures and processes related to environmental public health services data.

Exhibiting effective and ethical environmental health leadership and decision-making.

These activities connect to PHAB standards.

Environmental health programs also link to and support broader public health initiatives such as public health accreditation. Following are examples of activities that could contribute to accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). Completing these activities does not guarantee conformity to PHAB documentation requirements.

PHAB Standard 10.1: Employ strategic planning skills.

  • Contribute to the establishment of goals, objectives, and strategies to improve the delivery of environmental health services for inclusion in a health department-wide or environmental health program strategic plan.

PHAB Standard 10.2: Manage financial, information management, and human resources effectively.

  • Participate in efforts (for example, information security training, restricting access) to ensure safe and secure handling of environmental health data and data systems.

PHAB Standard 10.3: Foster accountability and transparency within the organizational infrastructure to support ethical practice, decision-making, and governance.

  • Ensure processes for developing or updating environmental health practice, policies, services, and regulations are shared with governing entities and advisory boards such as boards of health and health councils. For example, environmental health programs present data to these groups on air pollutants and air pollution sources that may impact public health.

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*Examples are not exhaustive.