Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-03T17:32:28.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State Boards of Health: Governance and Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Richard Hughes IV ,
Korisha Ramdhanie ,
Travis Wassermann  and
Craig Moscetti
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The governance structures of state public health systems vary as much as the states themselves, including the existence and role of state boards of health. Understanding these differences is essential to a complete understanding of the governmental public health enterprise. State boards of health are obvious vehicles for public health policy development in some states, where they work closely with or oversee state health agencies. In other states they do not exist or serve only in a non-binding advisory capacity.

In this article, we distinguish and identify state boards of health and state public health advisory boards, examine state boards of health in practice, and discuss their role in advocacy and policy development in the context of state politics. We used a set of mixed qualitative methods, including a literature review, online research of state statutes establishing state board of health authorities, and key informant interviews. Informants were five current and former state board of health members, four current and former state health officers, and nine state health agency senior policy staff, spanning 13 states.

Type
JLME Supplement
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 39 , Issue S1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 37 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Rosen, G., A History of Public Health (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1993): at 133–135.Google Scholar
Staff, Pfizer, Milestones in Public Health (New York: Pfizer Inc., 2006): at 214.Google Scholar
United States Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 200 Years of American Medicine (1776–1976), 1976, at 10.Google Scholar
Shattuck, L., Report of a General Plan for the Promotion of General and Public Health Devised, Prepared and Recommended by the Commissioners Appointed Under a Resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts, Relating to the Sanitary Survey of the State, 1850, at 111–112.Google Scholar
Smillie, W. G., “The National Board of Health, 1879–1883,” American Journal of Public Health 33 (1943): 926–930.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine, Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health, The Future of Public Health, 1988, at 148 (hereinafter cited as IOM).Google Scholar
Scutchfield, F. D. and Keck, C. W., Principles of Public Health Practice, 2nd ed. (Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Learning, Inc., 2003): at 112.Google Scholar
See IOM, supra note 6, at 147–148.Google Scholar
Ga. Code. Ann. § 31-2-3(a) (West 2010).Google Scholar
20 111. Comp. Stat. § 5/5–565 (West 2010).Google Scholar
Md. Code Ann., Com. Law § 2–206 (West 2010).Google Scholar
Ala. Code §§ 22-2-1, 22-2-6 (West 2010).Google Scholar
Mo. Ann. Stat. § 191.400(1) (West 2010); Haw. Rev. Stat. § 26–13(b) (West 2010).Google Scholar
Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 25-1-103(1) (West 2010).Google Scholar
See Mo. Ann. Stat., supra note 13.Google Scholar
Dearlove, J. V. and Glantz, S. A., “Boards of Health as Venues for Clean Indoor Air Policy Making,” American Journal of Public Health 92 (2002): 257–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Id., at 257–258.Google Scholar
Id., at 258–260.Google Scholar
Id., at 262.Google Scholar