Department of Public Health

Kate Donaldson, MPH and Dr. James Hinrichs, MD (Acting Co‐Directors)

ADOPTED FY23 BUDGET

$80,417,843

Department Mission

FULL TIME EQUIVALENTS 525.0

The mission of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) is to promote, protect, and improve the health and environment of the community. The department’s vision is that St. Louis County has healthy people, a healthy environment, and equitable communities.

The department believes in:

 Being a public health leader in the community

 Providing equitable access to services and resources

 Being responsive to the changing needs of the community

 Operating in an ethnical, transparent, and fiscally responsible manner

 Serving the community with dignity and respect

Budget Overview

The 2023 adopted budget for the Department of Public Health is $80,417,843, a decrease of $1,316,635 or 1.7 percent from the 2022 adjusted budget of $79,101,208. Personnel costs comprise 49.9 percent of the budget for 551 positions (525.0 full time equivalents). Operating expenses account for the 49.5 percent and capital expenses account for 0.6 percent of the budget.

Significiant Changes

The 2023 adopted budget includes an increase of $2.6 million in Corrections Medicine for professional medical services. Corrections Medicine has had difficulties recruiting and retaining medical staff due to low‐noncompetitive government wages and a difficult working environment. As a result, this program is transitioning to a contract‐based model for service delivery. By doing so it allows the Corrections Medicine program to provide the minimum level of service to patients in the jail and function 24/7. In addition, there is a $1.4 million increase for contracted professional medical services in the Division of Health Services. This increase is also a result of difficulties hiring medical staff. Furthermore, central service charges increased by $353,000, and insurance increased by $248,387. With changes in the management of animal shelter operations, the Animal Protective Association (APA) partner contract is $3.2 million which will allow APA to take care of animals in the St. Louis County shelter. To offset increases in the budget, the commodities budget was reduced by $707,117 and salaries were reduced by inactivating 75 positions across the department.

The County Council reduced the department’s budget by $5,293,043 (6.2%) compared to the County Executive’s recommendation to remove the value of 75% of vacant positions.