Partnerships for Public Health Emergency Preparedness: A Survey of US Health and Human Services Region 10 Local Health Departments

CONTEXT: Public health organizations and researchers recognize community engagement as a critical practice for promoting the health and well-being of communities, but gaps remain in our understanding of factors that contribute to the development and implementation of community partnerships related to public health emergency preparedness (PHEP), particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: To assess contextual factors that are associated with PHEP community engagement among local health departments (LHDs). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey study. SETTING: Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington). PARTICIPANTS: PHEP practitioners who work at LHD. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We developed a novel Community Engagement Scale (CES) to measure the level of community engagement activities among each LHD and adapted the Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) to measure participants' commitment to community partnerships in PHEP. RESULTS: LHDs 34% (n = 26) within Health and Human Services Region 10 responded to our survey, including 17 from Washington, 4 from Oregon, and 3 from Idaho. Participants had a mean of 4.9-year experience in PHEP. The mean Community Engagement Scale score was 13.4 out of 32, with a higher score indicating a greater number and frequency of community engagement activities. The mean Implementation Leadership Scale score was 30.1 out of 48, with a higher score indicating greater participant commitment to PHEP community engagement. The state in which the LHD is located was associated with community engagement activities and individual-level commitment to community partnerships. Individual years of experience in PHEP was associated with individual-level commitment to community partnerships. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a baseline assessment of engagement and partnership activities among LHDs in Region 10 using novel measures. Experience in PHEP and participants' commitment to PHEP community engagement were associated with partnership activities. Additional research is needed to uncover the state-level differences in community engagement activities and commitment to partnerships.