CHAPEL HILL - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will receive a $2.8 million grant to launch a management academy for public health professionals in four states that aims to improve how health departments nationwide serve citizens.
Officials from the university, the federal government and top health-related foundations today (March 15) announced plans for the Management Academy for Public Health, a first-of-its-kind project envisioned as a national model to address concerns public health officials have discussed for decades. The academy -- a joint effort of UNC-CH's School of Public Health and Kenan-Flagler Business School - will strengthen management skills of 600 senior- and mid-level managers in local and state public health departments across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Participants will study in Chapel Hill as well as in their home communities via distance learning and the Internet.
Grant funds over four years will come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration in Rockville, Md., the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich. and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J. The CDC's foundation will manage the project.
"By enabling improvements in public health management, the academy is designed to have measurable and meaningful effects on public health organizations and the communities that they serve," said Dr. William L. Roper, dean of the School of Public Health.
UNC-CH was selected from a pool of leading research universities to direct the academy because of its unique combination of expertise in public health and business administration, officials said.
"We look forward to demonstrating across the Southeast how we can use lessons from the worlds of business and public health practice to better equip the people responsible for delivering public health services to our citizens," said Dr. Robert S. Sullivan, dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Many health departments are hamstrung by fragmented programs, cumbersome bureaucracy and limited resources, Roper said. At the same time, those departments face managed health care, demographic and ethnic shifts in communities, emerging infectious diseases and environmental health threats including bioterrorism, and pressure to be more accountable and efficient. Roper pointed to the following hypothetical examples to show how training provided by the academy could help public health managers:
- In North Carolina, an uninsured child from a rural area might receive regular access to medical care for the first time because the local health department mounted a campaign to enroll participants in the state's new Children's Health Insurance Program.
- A South Carolina farmer might receive the influenza vaccination that prevents a life-threatening illness because the county health agency could finance a new mobile vaccination clinic in collaboration with area churches and hospitals.
- An outbreak of a serious food-borne illness might be prevented in an urban Virginia community because of improved health information and community systems that allow public health agencies and private medical providers to detect the illness quickly and identify the contaminated food product.
- A low-income mother visiting a public health clinic in Georgia could ensure that her 2-year-old son receives his scheduled vaccinations and developmental screening services in one visit through improved office procedures. The mother misses less work, avoids transportation costs for a second visit and keeps up with her child's preventative health needs.
The academy's work will begin this summer when teams of professionals from state and local public health departments come to Chapel Hill for a one-week program covering financial management, policy development, civic entrepreneurship, human resources and strategic management. After returning home, they will continue to study additional topics through the World Wide Web as well as by videoconferences originating from Chapel Hill. Participants will return to campus for a wrap-up session.
At UNC-CH, Dr. Janet E. Porter, clinical associate professor of health policy and administration, is the project director. Dr. James H. Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, is project co-director.
For more information on the academy or to register for this summer's inaugural classes, visit www.maph.unc.edu on the World Wide Web or call 919-966-7382.
Note: Porter can be reached at 919-966-3309/ jporter@sph.unc.edu; contact Johnson at 919-962-2261/jim_johnson@unc.edu.
School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, 919-966-8498, lisa_katz@unc.edu Kenan-Flagler contact: Kim Spurr, 919-962-8951, spurrk@unc.edu