Table 3.

Research Questions for Legal Status of Public Health Mission and Services

Research Questions for Legal Status of Public Health Mission and Services	Data Sources	Next Steps
Has the creation of legal statutes for essential services ensured provision of services, adequate funding, and PHA accountability? Is PHA staffing and infrastructure adequate to provide the full range of essential services?	Collect data from state public health agencies including state statutes and dates of enactment, trends in PHA statistics on essential services provided, staffing, and funding levels. Examine factors associated with unmet needs and failure to provide one or more essential services. Is there a relationship between legal mandate and provision of the 10 essential services?	Select successful and less successful state public health agencies to provide interviews and data leading to publication of case studies useful to states.
Are program evaluation and research services being used to support a learning health system process, including QI and improved efficiency?	Review publications and reports of past and current evaluation programs including documentation of studies undertaken, focus of studies, relevance of results for quality and efficiency improvement, and evidence of use of study findings.	Interview selected state PHAs with different approaches to program evaluation to learn how the information was used to improve quality and efficiency of essential services.