Rethinking the future of public health

The result was a massive scale-up of public health operations and mobilization of public-private partnerships that catalyzed innovation, built new capabilities, and temporarily expanded capacity. We learned about the resilience and fortitude of public health professionals and community health workers. We also learned about the underlying challenges embedded in public health operating models and organization structures.

To better understand the need to rethink the future of public health, Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) conducted a survey of 301 public health officials across the United States. The survey found more than 80% highlighted their public health operating model as a weakness during the COVID-19 pandemic.² Further, these public health leaders emphasized the critical need for increased public-private collaboration and modernized approaches to improving health equity.

During the pandemic surge, we worked with several state and local public health departments to address operating model gaps and operationalize public-private partnerships for equitable access to vaccinations, testing and treatments. This trend toward increased collaboration has accelerated as many public health departments are more actively collaborating with health systems, managed care organizations (MCOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs) to address health equity gaps and social determinants of health (SDOH) for the populations and communities they mutually serve.³

Taken together, the findings from the EY US public health survey and insights from recent market trends highlight the imperative for state and local public health leaders to rethink the future of their operating models and organization structures.