IPLAN is an innovative community health assessment and planning model adapted from
the National Association of County and City Health Officials' Assessment Protocol for
Excellence in Public Health (APEXPH). Designed to identify community health problems
and propose solutions through a comprehensive and ongoing planning process, IPLAN is
unique in that the community directs the decision-making under the guidance and
leadership of the local health department (
LHD). This process results in a five-year community
health plan, created at the local level, that addresses a minimum of three health priorities,
with time-referenced and measurable outcome and impact objectives with appropriate
intervention strategies.
IPLAN has been recognized as an excellent statewide, but locally based, health needs
assessment and planning tool. Many LHDs have indicated that as a result of conducting
IPLAN, they have been identified as health leaders within their community and IPLAN has
allowed them to effectively work with other local organizations in addressing pressing
community health needs.
Essential Elements of IPLAN
The essential elements of the IPLAN process include the following:
1. An organizational capacity assessment using the Assessment Protocol for
Excellence in Public Health (APEXPH), Part 1.
2. A community health needs assessment, the minimum content of which is
structured by community health indicators composed of--
3. Development of a community health plan focusing on at least the three
highest priority health problems, including--
History of the Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs
In 1986, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public
Health was convened to address the perception that this nation had lost sight of its public
health goals and had allowed the system of public health activities to fall into disarray. The
committee's work led to the landmark report The Future of Public Health
(1988), which has essentially changed the American public health system. The fundamental
change occurred in the way federal, state and local public health agencies met the
challenge of a newly defined mission, namely,
the fulfillment of society's interest in assuring the conditions in
which people can be healthy. To accomplish this mission, the committee recommended
that the structure of public health be changed from the traditional concept of basic health
services to a more dynamic and systematic core function approach. The committee
determined that the core functions of public health agencies at all levels of government are
assessment, policy development and assurance.
The IOM report echoed concerns expressed earlier by Illinois public health professionals
in The Roadmap Report (1984). By 1988,
the Illinois Department of Public Health, in collaboration with local health departments,
public health academia and professional organizations, determined that the state needed to
restructure the public health system and created the Roadmap Implementation Task Force.
The task force conducted a thorough assessment of Illinois' existing statutes and a
comprehensive analysis of the statewide public health system. The results of the analysis
were reported in The Road to Better Health for All of Illinois: Improving the Public Health
System (1990). The task force also developed and ratified The Public Health Charter for
Illinois, which contained both a mission statement (Article I) and a statement regarding the
government's role in public health (Article II). Overall results of the implementation of The Road to Better
Health are presented in Project Health: The Reengineering of Public Health in Illinois
(1994). Consistent with the IOM's recommendations, The Public Health Charter for Illinois
affirmed the three core functions of public health for state and local levels of government:
Assessment - Every public health agency must regularly and systematically collect,
assemble, analyze and make available information on the health of the community,
including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiologic
and other studies of health problems.
Policy Development - Every public health agency must exercise its responsibility
to serve the public interest in the development of comprehensive public health
policies by promoting use of the scientific knowledge base in decision-making about
public health and by leading in developing public health policy.
Assurance - Public health agencies must assure their constituents that services
necessary to achieve agreed upon goals are provided, either by encouraging
actions by other entities (private or public sector), by requiring such action through
regulation or by providing services directly.
To address the precepts set forth in Project Health, the Department created the Illinois
Project for Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN). In 1992, rules were promulgated under
Chapter 77 Illinois Administrative Code, Section 600.400 creating public health
practice standards based on core functions. LHDs must adopt and implement these
standards in order to be certified.
In 1994, all 86 of the existing LHDs satisfactorily completed these new requirements for
certification and, by 1997, five newly created Illinois health departments received
certification under the rules.
For the specific rules of the IPLAN process, please refer to the Illinois Administrative
Code, Title 77: Public Health, Chapter 1: Department of Public Health, Subchapter h:
Local Health Departments, Part 600: Certified Local Health Department Code, Subpart
D: Practice Standards, Section 600.400: Public Health Practice Standards and Section
600.410: Requirements for IPLAN or an Equivalent Planning Process.
For questions about the IPLAN process, please use the Feedback Form.