BACKGROUND INFO

York Counts, a nonprofit coalition that works to assess, sustain and enhance the quality of life in York County, proposed the idea of creating a countywide public health department in its 2004 YorkCounts Action Plan.  According to the Action Plan, a county health department would serve as a single resource for better managing the health concerns of county residents.  The Healthy York County Coalition took the advice of York Counts and developed a Health Department Task Force to explore the concept further.      
 
A county health department would administer a variety of public health functions, including personal health services, environmental health services and health promotion and disease prevention.  A county health department is considered integral to other major initiatives because it will improve overall living conditions especially in low-income areas, where increased health risks are higher.
 
Pennsylvania law gives counties the right to form their own health department and offers financial support and technical assistance to counties for doing so.  To date, only six of the states 67 counties have countywide health departments.  They are Philadelphia, Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Erie and Montgomery.  Four cities have municipal health departments—York, Bethlehem, Allentown and Wilkes-Barre.  Like York County, several other counties in the state are working to create a health department; examples include Lancaster and Dauphin counties.
  
Additional information about a county health department

• Fact sheet about a York County Health Department
• 10 essential public health services
• Results of polling York Countians about a county health department