The Baltimore City Health Department pursues a mission of advocating, leading, and providing services of the highest quality in order to promote and protect the health of Baltimore residents. The Department is comprised of six Bureaus, which include Maternal and Child Health, Clinical Services, Chronic Disease Prevention, Environmental Health, Healthy Homes, and Adult, School, and Community Health, and also guides several non-profit entities, which include the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS), Baltimore HealthCare Access (BHCA), Baltimore City Healthy Start, Baltimore Mental Health Systems, and Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems (BSAS). With more than 1,200 total employees, the Health Department provides and oversees a wide variety of services, including animal control, restaurant inspection, lead monitoring, homeless outreach, childhood immunizations, and STD screening. With its singular mission but extensive breadth of services, the Baltimore City Health Department strives to make Baltimore a healthier community everyday.
The Health Department provides data on the following topics in its bi-monthly template:
At a recent CitiStat meeting the following question was raised, “How can a city recruit and retain the best nurses possible to address the public’s health?” In response the Health Department began formulating ideas to market this potentially very rewarding position, which lets nurses make a marked difference in people’s lives. Human Resources worked with the Health Department to help make this easier by improving job posting and applicant processing for this high-priority position. CitiStat was able to facilitate this partnership because a panel of members of the Mayor’s Cabinet, including the Director of Human Resources, attends all meetings. Thus problems like this one can be addressed head-on with expertise.