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Pope County Joins Community Health Board PDF Print E-mail
Pope County Tribune - Starbuck Times
Written by Zach Anderson - Starbuck Times New Editor   
Monday, 06 September 2010 10:54

Pope County has entered into a new Joint Powers agreement which will create a new Community Health Board with a program implementation date of January 2011.


A CHB is a governing structure for area public health agencies. CHBs assess community health needs and assets, establish local public health priorities and distribute state and federal funding to participating public health agencies, like Pope County Public Health.

Currently, Pope County partners with Grant, Stevens and Traverse Counties to form the Mid-State Community Health Board, but as of January 1, a new five-county Community Health Board will be formed which includes Douglas County.

A committee of commissioners and staff from these five counties began meeting in January 2010 to discuss the challenges and opportunities of creating a five-county Community Health Board with a focus on assuring a strong public health infrastructure for now and into the future. There have been statewide discussions among county leaders about plans for redesigning how county services are delivered more efficiently.

Some of those discussions have included the idea of partnering with neighboring counties to offer services to the public - the benefits of which can include cost savings for the counties and ultimately taxpayers.

The creation of a new CHB here in west central Minnesota is a preemptive move in light of redesign discussions.

Pope County Public Health Director Sharon Braaten said Pope, Stevens, Traverse, Grant and Douglas Counties are natural partners, not only geographically, but these counties are already partners in numerous projects, both health and non-health related.

"This will allow us the opportunity to be even more effective and efficient in providing public health services," Braaten said of the new CHB.

Braaten also said combining Douglas County's population of about 36,000 with Pope, Stevens, Grant and Traverse Counties' population of about 30,000, positions the new CHB to be more competitive for grant dollars. It also strengthens the ability for the Public Health Agencies to become accredited as Public Health accreditation is implemented.

The new CHB likely won't have an impact on those who use public health services. If anything, it will allow consumers flexibility. For example, it will virtually erase county lines for participants of the Women Infant and Children (WIC) program in the CHB area.

The CHB will receive state and federal grants and allocate those resources for program implementation to the member Public Health agencies, those being Pope County Public Health, Stevens Traverse Grant Public Health and Douglas County Public Health.