Section 641.77.3. Local boards of health—roles and responsibilities.

 Public health is responsible for safeguarding the community’s health. This goal is pursued through three core functions: assessment, policy development and assurance.

         77.3(1) Assessment: Regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze, and make available information on the health of the community, including statistics on health status, community health needs, personal health services, and epidemiologic and other studies of health problems. A local board of health may perform the following essential public health services:

            a.                Monitor health status to identify community health problems;

            b.                Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community; and

            c.                Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal, population-based, and environmental health services.

         77.3(2) Policy development: Exercise responsibility to serve the public interest in the development of comprehensive public health policies. This core function can be accomplished by promoting use of a scientific knowledge base in decision making about public health and by taking the lead in public health policy development.

            a.                A local board of health may perform the following essential public health services:

             (1)              Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts; and

             (2)              Research new insights and innovative solutions to health problems and health threats.

            b.                A local board of health shall perform the following essential public health services:

             (1)             Enforce laws and regulations that protect public health and enforce lawful orders of the department;

             (2)              Make and enforce reasonable rules and regulations not inconsistent with the law or the rules of the state board as may be necessary for the protection and improvement of the public health; and

             (3)              Employ persons as necessary for the efficient discharge of the board’s duties. Employment practices shall meet the requirements of Iowa Code chapter 8A, subchapter IV, or any civil service provision adopted under Iowa Code chapter 400.

         77.3(3) Assurance: Assure constituents that services necessary to achieve agreed-upon goals are provided either by encouraging action by other entities (private or public sector), by requiring such action through regulation, or by providing services directly. Each local board of health must involve key policymakers and the general public in determining a set of high-priority personal and population-based health services. A local board of health may perform the following essential public health services:

            a.                Link people to needed personal health services; provide such personal, population-based and environmental health services as deemed necessary for the promotion and protection of the health of the public; and charge reasonable fees for personal health services;

            b.                Ensure the competence of the public health, environmental health, and personal health care workforce;

            c.                Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues;

            d.                Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems;

            e.                Issue licenses and permits and charge reasonable fees in relation to the construction or operation of nonpublic water supplies or private sewage disposal systems;

            f.                 Engage in joint operations by:

             (1)              Contracting with colleges and universities, the department, other public, private, and nonprofit agencies, and individuals; or

             (2)              Forming a district health department to provide personal and population-based health services; and

            g.                Enforce, by written agreement with the council of any city within its jurisdiction, appropriate ordinances of the city relating to public health.

[ ARC 9773B , IAB 10/5/11, effective 11/9/11;    ARC 2840C , IAB 12/7/16, effective 1/11/17]