Service and Resource Sharing: Resources

Service and resource sharing is a growing interest and need among local health departments in Wisconsin and across the country. Resources continue to be developed and refined to reflect arising needs and best practices. While DPH will continue creating guides, toolkits, and other supportive materials to educate on service and resource sharing in the local Wisconsin context, there are many existing resources to learn from. Find several local and national resources linked below.

Resource-Sharing Partnerships and Structures in Wisconsin: A Summary: (PDF) This document is a condensed summary of the service and resource sharing environmental scan and lessons learned. This resource is meant to be shared and used to get a basic understanding of service and resource sharing.

PHAB Service and Resource Sharing

• Approaches to Service and Resource Sharing
• Service and Resource Sharing in Action
• Tools for Service and Resource Sharing

Costing and Capacity Assessment: The Costing and Capacity Assessment Overview, P03615 (PDF) provides general, high-level information on the amount of money and resources we currently spend on Foundational Public Health Services and what resources we would need to fully provide them. Relating to service and resource sharing, this assessment suggests that over half of the local health departments in Wisconsin engage in some type of service and resource sharing arrangement or partnership with non-state agency partners.

National Health Association for City and County Board (NACCHO) Types of Shared Services Arrangements Between Local Health Departments and Health Centers (PDF)

Nationwide service and resource sharing examples

• Shared Services Involving Local Health Departments: A Bibliography of References from Ohio and Elsewhere (PDF) This resource has dozens of peer reviewed publications and works around shared services involving local health departments. Page 10 specifically lists articles sharing return on investment and impact of service and resource sharing arrangements.
• Colorado: Silver Thread Public Health District
  Recognizing the potential for mutual benefit, county commissioners in neighboring Hinsdale and Mineral counties in Colorado agreed to merge their two local health departments, forming the Silver Thread Public Health District. The two small and rural health departments merged to meet state mandates. Before merging, Mineral County struggled for years to meet mandated service provision requirements. County commissioners realized they needed to change how public health functions were structured or risk losing local control of these services. Since the merger, multiple sources of funding have been braided, service delivery has been restructured, and the two health departments share a board of health and a health director. The merger has resulted in additional grants, more consistent service provision, increased peer support, and increased staff salaries.
• Minnesota: Center for Public Health Practice
  The Minnesota Department of Health Center for Public Health Practice provides support for local health departments through technical assistance, a library of resources, and consultations. The Center also sends out a regular newsletter containing curated professional development and job opportunities to health department staff.
• Oregon: Marion and Polk Counties cross-jurisdictional sharing (CJS) arrangement (PDF) Marion and Polk Counties in Oregon were prompted to develop a formal cross-jurisdictional sharing (CJS) arrangement by the state’s public health modernization work. Marion and Polk counties are in a rural region of Oregon and collectively span an area of 1,950 square miles. They currently have two intergovernmental agreements in place and continue to identify additional challenges and opportunities that could be well-served by CJS. Both counties now use the same job description for communicable disease investigators to facilitate work on joint investigations; health alerts and advisory notifications are issued in both counties simultaneously; and targeted social media and communication campaigns occur in both counties.