Setting Priorities

The Prioritization Process

SSCHC partners reviewed and prioritized areas for improvement based on the findings of the Local Public Health Assessment Tool. Areas for improvement were ranked according to agreed upon criteria. These criteria included the likelihood that selected priorities would:

Positively improve health outcomes
Be reasonably achievable
Be supported by the participant’s agency

Within each of the 10 Essential Services of Public Health (ESPH), specific goals were established to strengthen the delivery of that particular public health service. These needs were identified as high-priority needs by the Local Public Health Assessment Tool. The table below shows the high priority goal chosen for each ESPH.

Essential Services and Prioritized Goals
	Essential Service	High Priority Goal
1	Monitor Health Status to Identify Community Health Problems	Prepare Community Health Profile
2	Diagnose and Investigate Health Hazards and Health Problems in the Community	Health Education and Health Promotion Activities
3	Inform, Educate and Empower People About Health Issues	Health Promotion and Education Activities
4	Mobilize Community Partnerships to Identify and Solve Health Problems	Strengthen community partnerships including maintaining inventory
5	Develop Policies and Plans that Support Individual and Community Health Efforts	Community Health Improvement Process
6	Enforce Laws and Regulations that Protect Health and Ensure Safety	Understand and Enforce Laws, Regulations and Ordinances
7	Link People to Needed Personal Health Services and Assure the Provision of Health Care when Otherwise Unavailable	Link People to Needed Services
8	Assure a Competent Public Health Work Force	Leadership Development
9	Evaluate Effectiveness, Accessibility and Quality of Personal and Population-based Health Services	Evaluate the Local Public Health System
10	Research for New Insights and Innovative Solutions to Health Problems	None