991: PHIG Funding + Interoperable Systems

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, September 16, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

This morning, another installment of the PHIG Impact Report, a twice a month segment that showcases the Public Health Infrastructure Grant and how your colleagues across the nation are using it. Today, ASTHO member, Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health.

Dr. Simmer, we've spoken with many public health departments about how PHIG funding has been helpful in their jurisdictions, but your department pinpointed an issue that the grant could help solve; walk us through that.

EDWARD SIMMER: 

Obviously, PHIG has been a big help for us. One of our larger uses of the PHIG funding has been to hire community health workers and expand on what was originally a one-region pilot. We divide our state into four regions that we started with another grant, so we've experienced direct benefits from having more community health workers on our team, but we've also been learning how to successfully integrate them into our larger team to help ensure that our efforts and work are focused on what our communities need the most and how that's identified by the communities, because we want them to drive the services that we provide. It's also allowed us to make significant investments into our current workforce, including things like tuition assistance programs and leadership training programs and certifications, which help us get a more qualified workforce, but also encourages recruitment and retention. The other thing that we've used PHIG funding for is our largest data modernization effort ever, which allowed us to hire a data modernization director and staff and replace our electronic disease surveillance system with a more robust and modern system, and working to make our data systems more interoperable, because there's nothing more frustrating than having to enter the same data three times because the systems don't talk. So, it's helping us take care of all of those things.

JOHNSON: 

You were really able to tackle a lot. If you could point to a specific outcome from PHIG, what would that be?

SIMMER: 

So, I think in South Carolina, all of our county health departments are centralized. They all report to the central office, and our health departments have benefited from the PHIG funding that supports workforce development, both by the addition of staff, but also by funding public health professional development programs, such as training that we offer to school nurses statewide so that they're better able to meet the needs of their students. That's been very popular. The implementation, as I said, of a new disease surveillance system will assist staff and local health departments whose work depends on- on having that data and an accurate, accurate and timely basis they know that includes things like making sure that case investigations and contact tracing for communicable diseases can be done as quickly and as effectively as possible. And also will help us work with communities to identify their top health challenges and address those. It's also allowed us to expand pilot projects and continue other new programs or services that we might have used with things like previous federal funding that's no longer available, and has really allowed us to be more sustainable in our efforts.

JOHNSON: 

What are some of those pilot programs?

SIMMER: 

I think one that we're very proud of is something called Leading the Way, which is an eight-month internal leadership program. It includes the Associate Public Management Certification for our participants. We've completed two groups now through this program, and those folks are already becoming some of the best leaders in our agency. We've also attached- enhanced our agency's ability to measure and track progress by implementing an agency-wide performance management training based on results-based accountability, which is being put to use in many areas. And as I mentioned, a tuition assistance program, which is, I think, really helped us help our staff grow in development and also retain the best folks on our team.

JOHNSON: 

It sounds like you were able to make some fantastic progress with PHIG, but unfortunately, it's one-time funding, right? How have you and your department been thinking about sustainable funding to keep this work moving forward?

SIMMER: 

You know, I think sustainability is crucial to what we do, because, you know, certainly we respond to immediate events, to, you know, crises, but much of the work we do needs to take place over, you know, months and years, but we can't do that without sustainable funding. So, I think it's necessary to maintain a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. I think, you know, one of the things that sustainable funding provides is it improves the retention and stability of staff, and that historical knowledge can be very helpful. But at the same time, it also allows us to bring in new staff who often have new ideas and experiences which help us innovate. It allows us to make longer-term commitments to our external partners and communities for programs and support, so they know when we come out, we start working with them, we're still going to be there in two or three years. You know, I think we've benefited from the flexible nature of the PHIG grant to field grant. Apps within the agency, not only for frontline programs, but also in administrative areas that are often stretched thin and which the frontline areas can't do their work without the strong administrative support that they need. You know? So, I think those things have been very helpful. It's allowed us to maintain and upgrade our facilities, equipment, and IT systems, which are very critical, and it's always more cost-effective when those things are done on a routine schedule and not when something breaks. And I think the PHIG grant has helped us do that. So, I think in all those ways, the PHIG grants have been very helpful, but you're right. It has to be sustainable, and we are certainly working hard to ensure that we now have ongoing funding for- for those things that we have found that work, so that we can keep those long-term commitments.

JOHNSON: 

Congratulations on those accomplishments. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Simmer.

You can learn more about the Public Health Infrastructure Grant and how it supports vital public health programs across the country by visiting the PHIG website. We have a link to that in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson, you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.