Public Health - Executive Summary

Division of Medicaid and Health Financing

Ninety percent of Utah's public health budget goes to patient care for Utahns who require assistance paying for their health care. The various health care financing programs are funded largely by federal dollars. The Division is working with several industry partners to develop and implement a pilot project on payment reform.

The Medicaid program currently covers an average of 200,000 Utahns each month. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) covers over 40,000 children. The Primary Care Network (PCN) covers over 20,000 adults. The Utah Premium Partnership (UPP), a health insurance premium subsidy program, covers nearly 750 adults and children.

Division of Family Health and Preparedness

This division was created from the former Division of Health Systems Improvement with the addition of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health and the Bureau of Children with Special Health Care Needs.

Utahns who come in contact with health care systems are protected by public licensing and regulation. Facilities as diverse as nursing homes, hospitals, radiology units, emergency medical responders, and child care providers are inspected and licensed by the Division of Family Health and Preparedness through the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Preparedness; the Bureau of Health Care Licensing, Certification, and Resident Assessment; and the Bureau of Child Care Licensing. The Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Preparedness also provides staff support for the Department's Bioterrorism and Disaster Response activities.

The Division's Bureau of Primary Care includes several programs focusing on health care for some of our most vulnerable populations.
  • The Clinical Services Program (the Health Clinics of Utah and the Family Dental Plan) is designed to assure adequate access to needed health care services for Utah's citizens served by the Medicaid program, which includes the Primary Care Network (PCN). This is done through three medical clinics (Ogden, Salt Lake, and Provo) and five dental clinics (Ogden, Salt Lake, Magna, Provo, and St. George) plus a mobile dental clinic which serves rural areas throughout our state.
  • The Patient Safety initiative, begun in 2001 and coordinated with the Utah Hospital Association and HealthInsight, provides monitoring of numerous health outcomes in an effort to improve the safety of our health care delivery systems.
  • The Office of Primary Care and Rural Health provides grants to safety net clinics and rural hospitals so that rural and underserved areas of our state can maintain adequate medical facilities, equipment, and trained personnel to care for our state's medically under served populations.
  • The Office of American Indian/Alaska Native Health in cooperation with the Division of Medicaid and Health Financing supports efforts to improve the health status of this vulnerable population in our state.
  • The Center for Multicultural Health is involved in numerous activities that support the delivery and improvement of health care services for culturally unique and vulnerable populations in our state.

The Division's Bureau of Maternal and Child Health programs reduce illness, disability, and death among women of childbearing age, infants, children, and youth in the state through review and analysis of numerous data sources. Program staff use the information to identify health concerns, determine priorities, and establish program strategies and plans that improve the health of mothers, infants, and children. The Bureau provides leadership for many maternal and child health efforts in the state through its programs, contracts with local health departments for services, and federal grant opportunities. The Bureau is responsible for most maternal and child health issues, such as promotion of health among women of childbearing age, access to health care before and during pregnancy, healthy weight and nutrition, mental health, immunizations, and oral health. The Bureau, along with the Bureau of Children with Special Health Care Needs, is responsible for oversight of the federal Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (Title V) and as such, is responsible for 18 National and 9 State Performance Measures related to the health of mothers, infants, children, and youth, including those with special health care needs and their families.

The Division's Bureau of Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) programs reduce preventable death, disability, and illness due to chronic and disabling conditions by providing access to affordable high-quality health screening, specialty health care, and coordination of health services. The Bureau encompasses nine programs serving children and youth with chronic or disabling conditions for whom there are no other developmental or diagnostic services in their community. Bureau programs try to improve the system of care for Utah children and youth with special needs through direct clinical services or population-based services, such as newborn blood spot and newborn hearing screenings, and the promotion of system infrastructure building. These services are provided by Bureau staff or through contractual agreement with community providers. The Bureau is responsible for the Maternal and Child Health Block grant (Title V) National and State Performance Measures related to children and youth with special health care needs.

Division of Disease Control and Prevention

The Division of Disease Control and Prevention includes the Office of the Medical Examiner (OME), Utah Public Health Laboratories (UPHL), Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP) and Bureau of Epidemiology (BE). The newly formed division is charged with critical public health functions including detection of outbreaks and emerging public health problems (UPHL, OME, BE), tracking and assessing causes of diseases (BE, BHP), and prevention of important causes of disease and disability (BE, BHP).

The Bureau of Health Promotion focuses on changing lifestyles and behaviors that lead to the most important causes of death and disability, early detection of cancer, prevention of injuries, and improving management of chronic diseases including diabetes, arthritis, and asthma. The Tobacco Prevention and Control Program has contributed to decreases in tobacco use leading to the lowest rate of adult tobacco use of any state in the U.S. However, tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability in Utah and remains a top public health priority. Obesity is one of the most important emerging public health problems in Utah.

The Bureau of Epidemiology tracks over 70 different communicable diseases, works to prevent several important infectious diseases, detects and investigates outbreaks, assesses the health impacts of environmental hazards, manages a statewide immunization program, supports treatment of HIV/AIDS for those unable to afford it, and maintains 15 rules that protect Utahns from environmental threats. Important current priorities include: 1) completing development and implementation of a statewide computer surveillance system developed through a public private partnership; 2) tracking the pandemic of influenza A (H1N1) and implementing appropriate prevention responses; and 3) administering an effective vaccination campaign to prevent morbidity and mortality due to this pandemic. The Bureau of Epidemiology is a critical component in the Department’s efforts to prepare for emerging infectious disease threats and bioterrorism.

The Utah Public Health Laboratories provides essential laboratory testing to detect and investigate causes of outbreaks of infectious diseases, assure safe drinking and surface waters, certify clinical and environmental laboratories that serve Utah, and support death and criminal investigations that involve toxic substances including licit and illicit drugs and alcohol. The most important priority for the UPHL this year is to complete the move into a state-of-the-art building, module one of an eventual unified state laboratories building complex. In addition, the UPHL provides essential laboratory testing for the pandemic of influenza A, supporting public health disease tracking and clinical management of this new virus.

The Office of the Medical Examiner investigates deaths to support law enforcement investigations of homicides, public health efforts to track important health problems such as suicide, injury, and causes of child mortality, and detect emerging public health problems such the epidemic of deaths due to prescription pain medication overdose.

Center for Health Data

Effective governance is fueled by strategic information. The Center for Health Data manages, analyzes, and provides appropriate access to large-scale information resources that support Utah public health programs. Utah’s premier web-based public health data resource, the Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health (IBIS-PH), acts as a central portal for much of this information.

The UDOH Survey Center collected, analyzed, and reported data on health insurance coverage and healthcare access information using the data from 9,746 Utah residents, or 3,165 households, gathered through the Utah Healthcare Access Survey (UHAS). These data accurately represent healthcare coverage in every local health district. The survey results are important to informing and assessing the Governor's Health System Reform initiative including providing estimates of the uninsured and the number of children eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Survey Center also collected information on 5,330 adults and 2,310 children using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a telephone survey that has been ongoing in Utah for 25 years. Information such as health-related behaviors and health status is gathered to support statewide collaborative initiatives including the Utah Partnership for Healthy Weight and the Utah Cancer Action Network (UCAN). In 2009, the two surveys were combined. The Survey Center also gathered information from 352 adults and 105 children with asthma.

The Center registered 104,763 records of the vital events of Utahns, preserving the facts of their births, deaths, and family formation. This year, almost all of these events were registered electronically. The compilations of these records, the vital statistics of Utah, provided data on infant health and leading causes of death to program managers, researchers, and the general public. In addition, 84,962 individuals were directly served with certified copies of their vital records for legal and other purposes.

The Center provided strategic information on the functioning of the health care delivery system that included five facility comparison reports for maternity and newborn care, hip and knee procedures, cardiac procedures, pneumonia care, and gallbladder removal. We expanded health plan reporting to include the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems - Health Plan Survey (CAHPS) for HMOs and PPOs in Utah. We developed an all-payer healthcare claims database to publicly report on the cost and quality for entire episodes of care. Currently the Center is receiving claims for 2007-2009 with new reports to be released in early 2010.

Working with the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) and Utah Partnership for Value-Driven Healthcare at HealthInsight, the Center leads Utah statewide strategic planning for health information exchange and coordinates public health's participation in the statewide clinical health information exchange (cHIE) in Utah. The Center also collaborates with health informatics researchers in the Rocky Mountain Center of Excellence for Public Health Informatics to develop new informatics tools to better support public health practice.

Content updated: October 2009
Center for Health Data, Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-2101, Telephone: 801-538-9191, Fax: 801-538-9346, Email: chdata@utah.gov
The information provided above is from the Utah Department of Health's Center for Health Data IBIS-PH web site (http://ibis.health.utah.gov). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: "Retrieved Sat, 07 November 2009 14:23:24 from Utah Department of Health, Center for Health Data, Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health Web site: http://ibis.health.utah.gov".

Content updated: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 18:32:46 MST