From the Executive Director

Shaping Public Health for the 21st Century...
through transition planning and organizational renewal

This, our 52nd Annual Report, recounts the service accomplishments of the past year, and highlights the steps taken to better position the Health Department to meet the challenges of the future.

We completed our initial strategic planning process in 1997, which has led to:

• A better understanding of the value placed on our programs and services by our stakeholders, and their perception of the unmet needs in DuPage County;
• A first step in modernizing our organization structure; and
• A thorough analysis of our Medicaid revenues and opportunities, as Illinois and the nation pursue managed care and adopt a major new maternal and child health insurance program (Title XXI).

Four town meetings were held in 1997 to re-introduce the community to the state-mandated Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN) process. These lay the groundwork for jumpstarting the next five-year cycle in 1998 to carry DuPage County into the 21st century. We anticipate that this next IPLAN process will include a more thorough review and possible revision of the department’s mission and that priorities for the department will be more broadly defined than the current four: * maternal and child health; * breast and cervical cancer; * cardiovascular diseases; and * youth violence.

The Health Department also strengthened its external linkages with scores of other community agencies in 1997 such as the DuPage Federation, Healthy Communities and others. Health system weaknesses identified in 1996-97 such as the burgeoning numbers of medically uninsured and those with unmet dental care needs will be major concerns of the department’s newly created Office of Planning, Education and Outcome Evaluation in 1998.

Infrastructure is indispensable for providing efficient and effective services and for maintaining a sophisticated epidemiology intelligence system. Major work was accomplished in 1997 to:

• move the entire department to the Windows® operating system;
• provide Microsoft Office 97® to most regular computer users;
• upgrade the voice and data transmission and telephone systems among the various sites;
• extend our intranet and internet capabilities;
• institute an electronic imaging system; and
• lay the training groundwork to create a learning organization that will sustain us well into the future.

We salute our board members, our partners and our staff as we work to improve Public Health today and in the next century.

David R. McNutt, M.D., M.P.H.
Executive Director

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