Research Information System
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND PRACTICE, vol.19, no.6, 2013 (Journal Indexed in SSCI)
The public health system (PHS) involves many agencies and organizations working together. 1 Systems function to connect, coordinate, and provide feedback among separate agents to fulfill specific purposes.(2) On the basis of previous consensus reporting(3) and research,(4) the PHSis made up of governmental public health agencies, hospitals, community-based health care providers, law enforcement, faith institutions, emergency medical services, and others. A critical purpose of the PHS is to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from emergencies with public health consequences. Statutes, regulations, plans, and protocols define emergency PHSs-for example, by outlining scopes of authority for governmental agencies, mandating mutual responsibilities (such as, communication and reporting) among agencies and community organizations, and establishing when emergency conditions warrant the departure from routine practices.