Practitioner Perspectives on Foundational Capabilities

Context: National efforts are underway to classify a minimum set of public health services that all jurisdictions throughout the United States should provide regardless of location. Such a set of basic programs would be supported by crosscutting services, known as the “foundational capabilities ” (FCs). These FCs are assessment services, preparedness and disaster response, policy development, communications, community partnership, and organizational support activities. Objective: To ascertain familiarity with the term and concept of FCs and gather related perspectives from state and local public health practitioners. Design: In fall 2013, we interviewed 50 leaders from state and local health departments. We asked about familiarity with the term “foundational capabilities, ” as well as the broader concept of FCs. We attempted to triangulate the utility of the FC concept by asking respondents about priority programs and services