Alabama Department of Public Health Essay Assignment Paper
Alabama Department of Public Health Essay Assignment Paper
The Alabama Department of Public Health is the main state health agency of the government of the US State of Alabama responsible for providing various public health services to Alabama residents (Alabama Department of Public Health, 2016). Hence, the agency strives for improved public health services and protection of the public by advancing disease prevention efforts and ensuring effective delivery of public health services to residents irrespective of prevailing difficulties, including payment and social conditions (Alabama Department of Public Health, 2016). The ADPH has designated the State Board of Health to advice on issues related to sanitation, and public health while working closely with the community to protect and preserve health through caring and delivering quality services. However, the state agency encounters some challenges in its efforts to provide, preserve, protect, and improve public health.
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The Current Issue
The ADPH now faces a budget deficit. The agency has an annual operating budget of $481.3 of which $273.8 million came from the federal funding, $146.7 million originated from the state, $49.7 million came from state funds, and additional $11.1 was received from other sources. The agency’s state funding has declined by $1 million, but fee-based funding has risen by $13.2 million (Alabama Department of Public Health, 2015).
Additionally, the agency has noted that the trend of federal funding is characterized by declines. The ADPH strives to meet its wide and intricate issues of public health in an extremely competitive environment amidst dwindling resources. Notably, the agency heavily depends on federal funding to deliver its public health services. Over the past years, it has felt the consequences of appropriation and other budget declines initiated by the federal government. Still, funding issues do not end at the federal level because additional budget cuts also emanate from the state funding. Alabama Department of Public Health Essay
How the Current Issue Affects the Administrative and Managerial Processes
For any public agency, there are usually serious outcomes associated with inadequate funding, and the ADPH is no exception. For instance, in the fiscal year 2015-2016, the State of Alabama introduced a budget cut to handle the growing deficits occasioned by dwindling funding. The Department of Human Resources was affected by a budget cut of about 5%. This implies that the Department is most likely to dismiss some of the employees and increase job pressure on the few remaining ones. Moreover, the healthcare sector in the US now faces shortage of personnel while the current workforce is overstretched. Alabama Department of Public Health Essay
Inadequate funds leading to a budget cut will negatively affect service delivery to the public in Alabama (Rosenbaum, 2011). The Department of Public Health will close “Coosa County Health Department; reduce licensures and certifications; discard nicotine patch purchases; and reduce disease control staff and regionalization of county operations, staff for Restaurant Health Inspections, and area and state support staff” (Gardner, 2015, para. 3). These cases show how the cut would affect the Department of Human Resources, which offers public assistance programs. Additionally, more programs and policy implementation would be affected by the budget cut. Alabama Department of Public Health Essay
The Medicaid budget was reduced by 5% ($156 million) (Gardner, 2015). This cut will affect majorities in Alabama. The healthcare sector in the State employs hundreds of thousands, and any cuts affect such employees. Medicaid is the most important public healthcare model for Alabama’s majorities. The so-called harsh cut will affect “Alabama’s rural hospitals, pediatrician offices, and other healthcare professionals, who are already wavering on the edge of closure” (Melson, 2016, para. 4-5). Relative to the year 1980, about 85% of rural hospitals in counties delivered babies in which Medicaid covered over half. Today, however, only 17 rural counties can provide delivery services or gynecology and obstetrics services.
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