Improving Indiana’s public health structure is the goal of a new commission announced by Governor Holcomb Wednesday. Over the next year, the 15-member commission will look at the strengths and weaknesses of the current health system, analyzing funding, staffing challenges, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Holcomb said Indiana is currently operating on a public health system that’s 140 years old, and the state consistently ranks in the bottom 10 for public health measures. “We have 94 different health departments around the State of Indiana,” Holcomb noted during a press conference Wednesday. “Obviously, that accents different approaches, different resource levels. There’s very little standardization that occurs across the whole system.”
One particular challenge is that smaller counties with only a few staff members in their health departments still have to provide all of the same services that larger counties do, according to State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box. “Some of these departments are simply unable to perform all of these duties that they’re required to do by law,” Box said. “Their resources are stretched thin in the best of times, and carrying out these required duties during a pandemic has become a Herculean task.”
The Public Health Commission may look at ways counties can share staff members, while one of the commission’s taskforces will consider how many local health departments the state should have in the first place. Governor Holcomb said the commission will not advise him on COVID-19 restrictions.
The group will be co-chaired by former state senator Luke Kenley and former State Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe, who currently serves as president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. The governor officially established the commission in an executive order Wednesday. It’s expected to make its recommendations in time for the General Assembly’s next budget session in 2023.
