The 1993 Public Health Improvement Plan legislation required standards and performance measures for the public health system in order to establish accountability and to highlight areas of needed improvement. Local and state health officials created the Standards for Public Health in Washington State in a multi-year process that included careful testing and revision of material.

The standards cover five key aspects of public health:

Understanding Health Issues

Protecting People from Disease

Assuring a Safe, Healthy Environment for People

Prevention is Best: Promoting Healthy Living

Helping People Get the Services They Need

For each area, overall standards are set for the public health system and specific performance measures are set for local and state agencies. There are a total of 23 standards in the five areas, with 98 performance measures for local health and 104 for the State. The Standards were used to assess performance of the system on a three-year cycle, beginning with a baseline study in 2002.

2005 - 2007 Priorities

• Select top priorities for system-wide improvement

• Refine measures and improve standards

• Set Environmental Health Program measures

• Adopt Maternal and Child Health (MCH) logic models

• Establish a collaborative to work on priority areas for change

• Evaluate health indicators for use along with standards (joint work with Key Health Indicators Committee)

• Learning opportunities on top priority areas (joint work with Workforce Development Committee)

• Orientation to standards work, on-line and other (joint work with Workforce Development Committee)