Centre County, State College Moving Forward with Health Department Study

Centre County and State College Borough plan to jointly fund a feasibility study that will help determine the need for a state-authorized health department at the county or municipal level.

Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said during Monday’s State College council meeting that he expects the contract with Gorenflo Consulting will be finalized soon. The county and borough will split the $24,000 cost for the study. Commissioners voted 2-1 earlier this month to approve funding from the county’s American Rescue Plan allocation and State College allotted funding in its 2021 budget to research the feasibility of establishing a health department.

Pennsylvania’s Act 315 provides funding to improve local health administration by authorizing grants to counties and to municipalities which establish their own departments of health that meet state requirements.

“Services are aimed at improving the respective community’s public health via the provision of direct health services, health education and community health leadership and control,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Act 315 website. “Emphasis is placed on primary and secondary preventive health services. The overall goal of these programs is to reduce morbidity and mortality among the local service population and to promote health lifestyles.”

Six counties and four cities in Pennsylvania currently have Act 315-funded health departments.

Residents and some elected officials began discussing an Act 315 health department in State College or countywide last year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether such a department could better facilitate direct services and provide data to inform local decision making.

The borough and county in July jointly formed a study committee comprised of the chair of State College’s Board of Health, one administrative representative each from the county and borough and two members of State College’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department.

Hannah Babiss, State College local government management fellow, told borough council that the committee has met with representatives from the four cities that have health departments — Allentown, Bethlehem, York, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton — to discuss their experiences, as well as Delaware County, which is in the process of applying for a health department.

The committee also met with state health department officials to discuss the application process and began collaborating with State College-based Gorenflo Consulting, which has worked with Delaware County for its health department, on developing a proposal for the feasibility study.

The study, which is expected to take no longer than six months, will evaluate local health resources, outline what a health department could provide and make recommendations on whether to move forward with the application process.

Babiss said the study will explore two potential models: one for a health department at the county level and one for a health department only in State College Borough.

It will be conducted in two phases. The first will be based solely on the requirements of Act 315 and the second will be “based on additional services, functions and capacities needed to meet public health needs not addressed by Act 315 but conform with national public health standards,” Babiss said.

Gorenflo is expected to provide a detailed overview of the scope of the study to a joint meeting of borough council and the county commissioners in November.

If the borough or county decide to move forward with a health department, the application process takes about two years, Babiss said. It would involve creation of a Board of Health with at least five members who would appoint a director with whom they would work to develop the department. At least two members of the board are required to be physicians, according to Act 315.

The study and a report on its finding are expected to be delivered to borough council and the commissioners in April 2022, Babiss said.