Public Health will get $100,000 a year for the next five years through the new Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act, he said.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said “the funds will help health department around the country to improve the quality and effectiveness of the critical health services that millions of Americans rely on every day.”
“Strengthening our public health system through better coordination and collaboration will help to deliver higher quality health care more efficiently,” Sebelius said.
Villagomez said the grant will provide much needed help for his department to help build its health prevention infrastructure especially during this time of economic downturn in the CNMI.
“The funds will allow [the department] to make fundamental changes in its organization and practices, so that we can improve the delivery of public health service in all areas,” he added.
Villagomez said the areas that will be addressed by the grant include:
• Building and implementing capacity within the health department for evaluating the effectiveness of the organization, practices, partnerships, programs and use of resources through performance management.
• Expansion and training of public health staff and community leaders to conduct policy activities in key areas and to facilitate improvements in system efficiency.
• Maximizing the public health system to improve networking coordination, and cross-jurisdictional cooperation for the delivery of public health services to address resource sharing and improve health indicators.
• Disseminating, implementing and evaluating public health’s best and most promising practices.
Villagomez thanked the Public Health staff headed by Roxanne Diz and Arielle Buyun who worked on the grant application.
