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
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.
