The future of public health: a survey of the states.

A survey of state health agencies was conducted to determine agreement and disagreement of state health officers with the recommendations contained in The Future of Public Health issued by the Institute of Medicine in 1988. The survey also measured the extent to which the IOM recommendations were judged currently in place or in the process of being implemented in the states. The survey showed almost unanimous consensus among the nation's state health officers for the vast majority of the recommendations. There was less consensus concerning the appropriateness of locating substance abuse, Medicaid, mental health, and regulation of health professions within state departments of health. However, a significant proportion of health officers favored a health agency location for these responsibilities (72%, 52%, 48%, and 38% respectively).