Below is more information about the agency, including who leads it, how many staff the department employs and what it does. (Industry Insider — Florida previously profiled DOH in November; this article contains updated information.)
FAST FACTS
Budget: The FY 2024-2025 budget bill appropriated $3.8 billion for the Florida Department of Health, with an estimated $149 million IT budget, according to the Center for Digital Government.*
Leadership: Pura Ahler is the agency’s deputy chief information officer.
Staff: The agency has 12,849 employees, according to SB 5001, the Florida Senate’s General Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2024-2025.
MORE ABOUT THE AGENCY
According to the department’s website, the state Legislature established the Florida Department of Health in 1996.
“In 2007, the first-ever state surgeon general was established to spearhead the efforts of DOH, thereby designating a health officer to oversee all matters of public health,” the website says.
Today, DOH oversees a state health office in Tallahassee, 67 county health departments, eight children’s medical services area offices, 12 medical quality assurance regional offices, nine disability determinations regional offices and three public health laboratories.
As for technology, the governor’s recommendations for DOH for FY 2024-2025 include:
- $7,499,200 in funding via a public health workforce grant for data modernization
- $2.9 million for the department’s Merlin System, which “serves as the state’s repository of reportable disease case reports, including automated notification of staff about individual cases of high-priority diseases.”
SB 5001, on the other hand, lists the following line items for DOH:
- $850,000 to contract with a vendor to facilitate a modernization plan for the county health departments' Health Management System
- $527,200 for centralized online reporting, tracking and notification enterprise (Cortne) system
More information about the agency’s potential IT spend can be found online.
*The Center for Digital Government is a division of e.Republic, which is the parent company of Industry Insider — Florida.
