Local health departments: planning for a changed role in the new health care environment.

Several reports have identified a series of public health planning tools that are helpful but not sufficiently comprehensive for planning in the current health care environment. This article describes the planning efforts of six local health departments (LHDs) in Florida and the results. These suggested that the LHDs would have benefited from using one of the approaches commonly found in the private sector, strategic planning. A strategic planning framework for LHDs is described and a series of relevant questions are suggested to aid in strategic planning.