Address: 1 County Complex Court, Woodbridge, VA 22192 Project Director Name: Elijah Johnson/Nicole Brown Contact Phone Numbers: 703-792-6992 Email Address: nbrown@pwcgov.org Website Address: www.pwcva.gov Grant Program Funds Requested: HRSA-22-135 Prince William County is the second largest local jurisdiction and largest majority minority community in Virginia. In April 2021, the General Assembly of Virginia granted the authority to the County of Prince William and the Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park to locally operate a health department. Most health departments in the Commonwealth of Virginia are administered by the state. Currently, the Prince William Health District (PWHD) serves the communities of Prince William County, the City of Manassas and the City of Manassas Park. With the authority provided by the General Assembly, the health district would become a county department serving all three jurisdictions. As such, it would allow the local jurisdictions the ability to be responsive and agile in meeting the needs of the community during emergencies, to include procuring and obtaining goods, materials and resources; provide pay equity for employees and consistent classifications, pay scales benefits and policies for local and state employees alike; provide equal access to technology and other material; streamline administrative practices and reduces duplication of administrative efforts; and increase ability to respond to new local health initiatives and local strategic plan goals. Prince William County is currently in the process of working with the City of Manassas, the City of Manassas Park, the Prince William Health District and the Virginia Department of Health to begin the transition to a locally administered health department. As part of this process, a stakeholder working group was created with representatives from all affected entities to research and gather the necessary data for transition. The working group created five s
ub-teams based on the major areas of transition – Administration, HR, Technology, Facilities and Fleet, and Finance. One of the major findings of the sub-teams was the need to do a full replacement of computers and equipment for the health district staff. A full replacement strategy enables consistency in IT standard equipment and services; consistent and standard security policies, controls and enforcement; and cost savings through economies of scale. In order to meet the transition deadline and to ensure that health district employees are able to seamlessly continue their work from day one, new laptops, monitors, printers, mobile devices (phones and tablets), and other hardware/equipment for 96 health district employees must be ordered and ready to be installed before July 1, 2023. The county must also provide county email accounts for each state employee and include those employees in the county’s enterprise Microsoft account. Federal funding will be used to purchase the one-time technology costs associated with the transition and is expected to take six to 10 months to complete, depending on availability of equipment due to supply chain issues. A locally administered health department would allow the department to streamline administrative efforts and remove duplication and inefficiencies. It would also allow the county the ability to meet the needs of the community in a proactive and agile manner. Ensuring that health district employees have the technology needed from the very beginning will allow for a seamless transition to occur.