Public Accountability Report

Mission: The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is an advocate for and partner with the people of Illinois to re-envision health policy, promote health equity, prevent and protect against disease and injury, and prepare for health emergencies.

Vision: Illinoisans empowered and supported to achieve their optimal health with dignity and acceptance in diverse and thriving communities.

Values and Guiding Principles:

Health Equity: We believe that achieving optimal health for everyone is rooted in reducing and removing social, environmental, economic, and structural barriers to health, such as racism and other forms of inequity.

Integrity: We believe that the foundation of public health is trust, and that we must always act with the highest standards of honesty, trustworthiness, and transparency.

Science and Data: We believe that our decisions, policies, and programs must be driven by science, the most reliable public health expertise, and timely data.

Preparedness: We believe we must be prepared to address emerging issues and health emergencies and maintain flexibility to respond quickly and effectively.

Collaboration: We believe that we are most effective in achieving our health goals when we value the contributions of our diverse employees and partners; collaborate with stakeholders, communities, and other state agencies; and foster a culture of inclusivity.

Communication: We believe that communication is a multidimensional process and to enhance public health we must provide accurate, evidence-based, actionable, and timely information that is informed by community needs, builds public confidence, and increases public knowledge and healthy behaviors.

IDPH utilized the Strategic Plan and its State Health Improvement Plan to guide its work in alignment with its mission, vision, and value statements. The following summarizes these goals and identifies objectives. Overall, the metric goals for each office were met.

The Center for Minority Health Services (CMHS) overall continues to take steps to improve the quality of performance measures captured to give us better insight on targeted interventions and service gap areas that will move CMHS toward addressing the agency’s mission of optimal health for all Illinoisans. CMHS’s biggest challenges in this reporting period include shortage and turnover of key program staff, grant amendments, and bundling of state and federal funds, which created some issues within the grants management system and delayed grant renewals and payments. CMHS set benchmarks for staff performance in certain areas to ensure deliverables are met in a timely manner and to reduce the rate of approved reimbursement vouchers that are returned from the Office of Financial Administration due to errors. While CMHS continues to meet its goals in raising awareness and education and providing access to care, we remain hopeful that future funding will include opportunities for addressing those social and economic determinants that prevent certain communities and population groups from achieving optimal health.

The Office of Disease Control (ODC) administers programs to prevent and control infectious and communicable diseases, to reduce and eliminate exposure, and to ensure population health, safety, and well-being. Formerly the Office of Health Protection, ODC was born out of necessity, as during the COVID-19 pandemic IDPH’s efforts became singularly focused on disease control. The creation of ODC provides IDPH with a platform to build a significantly larger disease control and response team while maintaining appropriate span of control. Primary responsibilities include statewide surveillance, identification of disease outbreaks and clusters, reporting, and providing consultation services and training for public health partners; focusing on preventing the spread and complications resulting from various community diseases – specifically tuberculosis, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS; and doing surveillance monitoring that takes samples from wastewater treatment plants and tests for ongoing monitoring of COVID, flu, RSV, and variants across Illinois.

The Office of Health Care Regulation’s (OHCR) mission is to ensure a safe and healthy environment and to promote quality care for people who use primary health-care agencies and services. OHCR's goal in fiscal year 2023 is to ensure compliance with minimum standards/rules for long-term care facilities. The OHCR results summary shows that, overall, goals were met.

The Office of Health Promotion’s (OHPm) recent state appropriation increases has expanded the reach of chronic disease programming. Increases in trainings, screenings, and interventions for asthma, blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, dementia, and cancer (colorectal, lung, and prostate) were seen across the state. The Newborn Screening Follow-up Program works to assure that all out-of-range newborn screening results have prompt and appropriate medical follow-up so that babies with critical newborn screening conditions may receive needed treatment. A downward trend is consistent with the downward trend in birth rate for the State of Illinois. The Oral Health Program had increases in oral health care and distribution of health kits after appropriation through annual legislation. Surveillance of violent deaths through the Violent Death Reporting System (VDRS) continues annually.

The Office of Health Protection (OHPt) implements programs to reduce the incidence of disease and injury caused by environmental exposures, using surveillance, assessment, inspection, case management, data, stakeholder education, and enforcement of statutes and rules.

The Office of Policy Planning and Statistics (OPPS) collects, analyzes, and evaluates information on health status, health needs, and disease occurrence in Illinois residents. The office has four divisions: the Division of Patient Safety and Quality, the Division of Vital Records, the Division of Health Data and Policy, and the Division of Epidemiologic Studies. Additionally, OPPS supports the Center for Rural Health and the Health Services Facilities and Review Board. Under these areas, OPPS conducts epidemiologic studies and manages disease registries, supports statewide health assessments and surveys, advises on and supports health professional shortages, ensures the integrity of Vital Records, tracks healthcare service use and patient safety outcomes, administers the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and processes applications for capital improvements to healthcare facilities.

The Office of Preparedness and Response's (OPR) mission is to work with federal, state, and local partners to strengthen core emergency preparedness and response initiatives and create statewide public health and medical emergency response capability. OPR’s goals during fiscal year 2023 were to increase the state's public health capacity to prepare for all-hazards emergencies and ensure that the tools are in place for a robust public health response across the state even as threats evolve and emerge. The OPR results summary shows that some measures were met and exceeded and some underperformed.

During fiscal year 2023, the Office of Women’s Health and Family Services (OWHFS) had many accomplishments and victories. The Illinois Title V programs, partners, and collaborations were estimated to have reached over 3.3 million Illinois residents through a variety of direct, enabling, population-based, and infrastructure-building services. The Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program screened almost 20,000, the Illinois Family Planning Program had over 186,000 clients visit their 124 clinics, and the Illinois WISEWOMAN program screened over 1,000 women for CVD risk factors. Our staff gave incarcerated women hope, assisted thousands of strangers calling the women’s health line, hosted over 2,000 health professionals in conferences or summits, and much more.