vary greatly. However, they add that in rural and small suburban areas, the local board of public health is typically given legal responsibility for the health of all those living in its jurisdiction.
With respect to the organizational/administrative components of local, municipal, and regional boards of public health, board members are commonly appointed by local elected officials such as the mayor or the country board of supervisors. The National Association of Health Officials (1990) reports that these boards usually employ a country health officer who is responsible for appointing other personnel within the confines of the agency's budget and according to local health needs.
The type of personnel hired by local, municipal, and regional boards as well as the actual service functions the board policy specifies will usually depend upon the size and population density of the geographic area of its jurisdiction. In this regard, Lancaster and Lancaster have stated that when geographic size is large and population density is high, the Board is usually much larger which is to say that it can hire a number of additional people to handle such functions as the management of health statistics, records, laboratory services, health education services, etc.
Most area boards of public heath are either local county or municipal agencies functioning as part of the local country or municipal government. According to Lancaster and Lancaster (1994), municipal public health boards tend to have more autonomy than other kinds of public health boards because they have charters allowing them to execute most any function that does not violate state law.
County boards of public health, on the other hand, are more limited in scope. This is because most of these boards are restricted in that they are only allowed to do those things which are specifically mandated by state law. Regional boards of health preside over more than one county or m...