New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 8 - HEALTH › Chapter 52 - PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE FOR LOCAL BOARDS OF HEALTH IN NEW JERSEY › Subchapter 2 - DEFINITIONS › Section 8:52-2.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall
				  have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
"Actively participate" means that the local health officer or his
				  or her designees do not miss more than one regularly scheduled meeting in a 12-month
				  period for meetings which are scheduled monthly, or attend 75 percent of all
				  meetings for meetings held more frequently than one time per month, and provide
				  input and take necessary action as required.
"Advocacy" means to act and speak out in support of a specific
				  public health issue or cause.
"Assure" means to achieve agreed upon goals by encouraging the
				  actions of public or private entities, by requiring such actions through ordinance,
				  or by providing direct service.
"Capacity" means the ability to perform services through available
				  resources, staffing, and/or contractual agreements.
"Clinical preventive health services" means those primary care
				  services that assure timely epidemiological investigation and specific disease
				  prevention and containment and are those services which are an integral component of
				  the public health protection and prevention process.
"Community health assessment" means a formal countywide or
				  multi-countywide process which determines the health status and quality of life. The
				  assessment identifies problems, assesses the community's capacity to address health
				  and social service needs, and allows for Statewide comparability. The assessment
				  also identifies those populations, if any, that are under served by providers in
				  that community and provides information about resource distribution and
				  costs.
"Community Health Improvement Plan" means a formal written plan
				  which includes the roles and responsibilities of all participants as well as a
				  mechanism for accountability for agreed upon goals, objectives and services. The
				  plan is developed though a series of timely and meaningful action steps that define
				  and direct the distribution of essential public health services of community public
				  health providers in a specific countywide or multi-countywide area according to
				  partnerships and processes set forth in this chapter. All plans need to be approved
				  by the Office of Local Health.
"Community public health providers" means governmental local
				  health agencies and other public and private entities in the community that provide
				  public health services.
"Competent leadership" means a public health professional who is
				  trained in supervisory and leadership techniques and who has demonstrated an ability
				  to plan, organize, and direct the work of others in order to attain public health
				  objectives.
"Continuous quality improvement" means a process whereby
				  performance is measured on a regular basis, strategies for improving performance are
				  developed and implemented, and feedback monitoring is performed to assure high
				  quality services.
"Data analysis" or "analysis of data" means the collection,
				  compilation, statistical analysis, and interpretation of data.
"Department" means the Department of Health and Senior
				  Services.
"Designee" means one or more licensed public health
				  professional(s) employed by the local health agency who act on behalf of the health
				  officer of that local health agency; or one or more licensed health officer(s)
				  employed by one local health agency who agree to act on behalf of a licensed health
				  officer employed by another local health agency.
"Director of health education" means an individual who is
				  responsible for health education leadership and for the management of the major
				  responsibilities of health education.
"Director of public health nursing" means an individual who is
				  responsible for public health nursing leadership, policy development, planning and
				  quality assurance of public health nursing practice and for the supervision and
				  management of the major responsibilities of public health nursing.
"Distance Learning Network" means a Statewide system of
				  educational facilities which are available and capable of receiving and downlinking
				  satellite transmissions. These facilities also make maximum use of other evolving
				  technologies for the purpose of training public health and other
				  professionals.
"Enforcement" means any action taken by a local board of health or
				  its local health agency to ensure compliance with provisions of
				  26:3-1 et seq., N.J.S.A. 26:3A2-1 et
				  seq., or any other applicable rules promulgated thereunder.
"Epidemiologist" means an individual who is responsible for data
				  instrument design; data analysis; problem solving, development and evaluation of
				  surveillance activities; the design, conduct, and reporting of research projects
				  with the capacity to investigate and describe the determinants and distribution of
				  disease, disability, and other health outcomes; and developing the means for disease
				  prevention and control.
"Field representative, health education" means an individual who
				  performs health education and health promotion activities under the supervision of a
				  health educator.
"Graduate nurse, public health" means an individual who performs
				  direct clinical services under the supervision of a public health nurse.
"Health Alert Network" or "HAN" means the term used by the Federal
				  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to describe the public health
				  infrastructure: the communications system, workforce training and organizational
				  capacity needed to respond to public health emergencies. In New Jersey, the Local
				  Information Network and Communications System (LINCS) and Distance Learning Network
				  form the foundations for the HAN.
"Health education" means any educational, organizational, policy,
				  economic, and environmental intervention designed to stimulate healthy behaviors in
				  individuals, groups, and communities.
"Health educator" means an individual who is responsible for
				  assessing individual and community health education needs; planning, implementing,
				  and evaluating effective health education programs; coordinating health education
				  services; serving as a resource person in health education; and communicating health
				  and health education needs, concerns, and resources.
"Health officer" means an individual who is licensed pursuant to
				  N.J.A.C. 8:7 and is employed full-time as the chief executive officer of a
				  municipal, regional, county or contractual health agency. This individual is
				  responsible for evaluating health problems, planning appropriate activities to
				  address these health problems, developing necessary budget procedures to finance
				  these activities, and directing staff to carry out these activities efficiently and
				  economically.
"Information technologist(s)/computer specialist(s)" means an
				  individual who evaluates information technology hardware and/or software, provides
				  technical planning, prepares specifications, evaluates information technology
				  vendors and/or contracts, prepares cost benefit analyses of various information
				  technology solutions.
"Linkages" means a set of formal or informal inter-relationships
				  among organizations and agencies which constitute a community public health
				  system.
"Local Information Network and Communications System" or "LINCS"
				  means a network of public health agencies which are inter-connected with the
				  Department through an electronic public health information system that is built on
				  personal computer and Internet technologies.
"Local board of health" means a county or municipal board of
				  health, or a board of health of any regional, local, or special health district
				  having the authority to regulate public health or sanitation by ordinance.
"Local health agency" means any municipal local health agency,
				  contracting local health agency, regional health commission, or county health
				  department that is administered by a full-time health officer and conducts a public
				  health program pursuant to law.
"Local public health system" means the informational, financial,
				  organizational and human resources that contribute to the public's health. These
				  include, but are not limited to, local health agencies, hospitals, emergency medical
				  services, managed care organizations, primary care centers, social services
				  agencies, schools, health care practitioners, church groups, volunteer agencies, and
				  community-based organizations.
"Monitor" means to systematically measure a process or task or to
				  track compliance with standards, guidelines, laws, rules or regulations.
"Office of Local Health" means the Office of Local Health within
				  the Department of Health and Senior Services.
"Policy" means a set of comprehensive public health laws, methods,
				  and guidelines which are based on scientific knowledge.
"Preventive health services" means those population-based
				  activities such as clinical, health education and/or health promotion, screening,
				  treatment, and follow-up which provide primary or secondary disease
				  prevention.
"Public health" means organized societal efforts to protect,
				  promote, and restore the people's health, and societal activities undertaken to
				  assure the conditions in which people can be healthy. This includes organized
				  community efforts to prevent, identify, and counter threats to the health of the
				  public.
"Public health emergencies" means urgent, severe threats to the
				  health of the population which are of an acute nature and require immediate
				  response. Response may include mitigation and enforcement by the local governmental
				  public health system.
"Public health medical director" means an individual under the
				  administrative direction of a health officer of a local health agency who is
				  responsible for developing and evaluating medical policies related to the public's
				  health. These policies include, but are not limited to, evaluation of screening
				  recommendations, treatment recommendations, and the use of medical devices through
				  the performance of core public health functions and the delivery of the "10
				  essential public health services" at
				  8:52-3.2(a)1  through
				  10.
"Public health nurse" means an individual who uses knowledge from
				  nursing, social, and public health sciences to promote and protect the health of
				  populations through the performance of core public health functions and the delivery
				  of the "10 essential public health services" at
				  8:52-3.2(a)1  through
				  10.
"Public health nursing supervisor" means an individual who is
				  responsible for managing the daily public health nursing activities for the
				  performance of core public health functions and the delivery of the "10 essential
				  public health services" at
				  8:52-3.2(a)1  through
				  10.
"Public health planner" means an individual who is responsible for
				  the collection and summary of relevant health information through the use of modern
				  health planning tools; the use of current techniques in decision analysis; the
				  identification and integration of public health laws, regulations, and policies into
				  specific local health agency programs and activities; the preparation of policy
				  options with expected outcomes and recommendations for the appropriate course of
				  action; and the development of mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness and quality
				  of public health programs.
"Registered environmental health specialist" means an individual
				  who is licensed pursuant to N.J.A.C. 8:7 and is responsible for the performance of
				  inspections, the compilation of proper records of inspections, the collection of
				  evidence of violations, and the issuance of notices of violation to responsible
				  parties.
"Surveillance" means the continuous systematic collection,
				  analysis, and interpretation of health data that is essential to planning,
				  implementation, evaluation of public health practice, and dissemination of these
				  data.
"Surveillance system" means a functional capacity for data
				  collection, analysis, and dissemination linked to public health programs, and the
				  application of these data to prevention and control.