Contact Info
Divisions, Sections, and Programs at MDH
MDH Organizational Chart (PDF)
Bureaus and divisions
Health Equity Bureau
- Health Equity Strategy and Innovation Division
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Office of African American Health
- Office of American Indian Health
Health Improvement Bureau
Health Protection Bureau
Health Systems Bureau
Operations Bureau
Offices, sections, and programs
Cancer Control
Works to reduce death and illness in Minnesota from cancers for which early detection saves lives.
See also > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Case Mix Review
Does annual inspections to assess the quality of care in long-term care facilities that take part in the Medicaid program; assesses the level of care needed for each resident, helping to determine the amount a facility is paid to provide care.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Center for Health Equity
The Commissioner of Health established the center in 2013 to make advancing health equity an essential goal for a healthy Minnesota and the work of MDH.
Center for Health Promotion
Encourages all Minnesotans, through community-based health promotion programs and educational activities, to make healthier lifestyle choices to prevent chronic diseases and injuries.
See also > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Center for Health Statistics
The center compiles annual statistical files for all births and deaths in Minnesota; plays a lead role in several statewide health surveys (Minnesota Student Survey, Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey, Youth Tobacco Survey); supports local public health with statistical data requests and health equity data analysis (HEDA) tools; and produces annual population health reports and other health-related research briefs and articles.
See also > Community Health Division
Chronic Disease and Environmental Epidemiology
Monitors the occurrence of cancer and other chronic diseases, and responds to reports of chronic disease "outbreaks." Operates a statewide system of surveillance for all newly diagnosed cancer cases in the state.
Minnesota Cancer Reporting System
Minnesota Tracking
Minnesota Biomonitoring
Minnesota Public Health Data Access Portal
See also > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Commissioner's Office
The Minnesota Department of Health commissioner is the administrative and executive head of the department.
Cross-cutting Epidemiology, Programs and Partnerships
Monitors the occurrence of hepatitis, health care associated infections, and antibiotic resistance; takes action to prevent or control potential outbreaks and educates the public and health care providers about these diseases; and works to safeguard the health of all Minnesotans. Provides support to improve infection prevention and control capacity across Minnesota. Partners with local health departments, private health care providers, and community organizations to offer each new refugee arrival a comprehensive screening examination, appropriate follow-up or referral, and community-based health education.
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Drinking Water Protection
Ensures that public water supplies provide a safe and adequate supply of drinking water to residents and visitors.
- Administers and enforces provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
- Monitors drinking water quality, performs on-site inspections of water system facilities and operations, and informs the public of potential problems.
- Establishes construction standards, and reviews and approves plans for construction of drinking water facilities.
- Trains and certifies operators of water treatment plants and distribution facilities.
- Works with public water suppliers to develop and implement water/wellhead protection plans that safeguard their water sources from contamination.
- Source Water Protection: Works with public water suppliers to develop and implement water/wellhead protection plans that safeguard their water sources from contamination.
- Water Operator Certification Office: Provides information about the certification program for public water supply system operators.
See also > Environmental Health Division
Emerging Infections
Monitors the occurrence of invasive bacterial infections and other emerging infectious diseases (e.g., Group A and B Streptococcus, Neisseria meningitidis, MERS); takes action to prevent or control potential outbreak; educates the public and health care providers about these diseases; and works to safeguard the health of all Minnesotans.
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Engineering Services
Reviews and approves plans for construction of health care facilities or changes in the physical plant of existing facilities.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Environmental Laboratory
Tests environmental samples for a broad range of potential contaminants, primarily in support of programs at the Minnesota Department of Health and other government agencies.
See also > Public Health Laboratory Division
Environmental Surveillance and Assessment
Evaluates health risks from exposures to toxic environmental hazards and communicates these risks to the public and decision-makers. Includes the following programs:
- Health Risk Assessment: Evaluates health risks from exposures to toxic environmental hazards and communicates health risk information to the public.
- Site Assessment and Consultation: Evaluates and communicates health risks from exposures to contaminants from hazardous waste sites, landfills, industrial facilities, and other sites containing hazardous materials. Conducts surveillance of hazardous substance emergency events and investigations of exposures to uncontrolled contaminant releases.
- Environmental Impact Analysis Unit: Tracks environmentally related diseases and hazardous exposures, especially lead, and educates the public about environmental health threats and the benefits of avoiding potentially harmful exposure.
- Meth Lab Program: Works to share resources, raise awareness, protect endangered children, provide training and equipment for first responders and other at-risk staff, and to help Minnesota communities work together to create a strong local response to this problem, through education, training, and civil action.
See also > Environmental Health Division
Family Home Visiting Program
Promotes health and self-sufficiency for some of Minnesota's most vulnerable families by offering eligible families the opportunity to receive home visits by a public health nurse and trained home visitors. The program can offer families a wide range of services, information, and resources to help them to become self-sufficient and to provide a healthy start for their children.
See also > Community and Family Health Division
Food, Pools and Lodging Services
Protects the public health and safety of Minnesota residents and visitors by:
- Establishing standards for and inspecting restaurants, boarding and lodging establishments, hotels, motels, bed and breakfast establishments, resorts, campgrounds, youth camps, and manufactured home parks licensed or permitted by the department.
- Establishing standards for and inspecting swimming pools located in state licensed facilities.
- Establishing standards for plumbers, water conditioning contractors, and swimming pool construction.
- Reviewing plumbing, food and beverage, mobile home park, campground, lodging, swimming pool, and onsite sewage treatment plans.
- Administering the food manager certification and sanitarian/environmental health specialist registration programs.
See also > Environmental Health Division
Food Safety Center
The MDH Food Safety Center consists of program activities in four MDH divisions: Public Health Laboratories, Environmental Health, Family Health, and Disease Prevention and Control. The coordinator of the Food Safety Center will develop and maintain a working relationship with MDH staff, other state agencies, and with industry leaders in the areas of food production, transportation, distribution, and sales to establish a comprehensive food safety program for the state of Minnesota.
Foodborne, Waterborne, Vectorborne, and Zoonotic Diseases
Monitors the occurrence of foodborne, waterborne, vectorborne and zoonotic infectious diseases (e.g., Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, Lyme disease, and rabies respectively) and takes action to prevent or control potential outbreaks, educates the public and health care providers about these diseases, and works to safeguard the health of all Minnesotans.
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Health Alert Network (HAN)
Enables public health staff, health care providers, emergency workers, and others working to protect the public to exchange information during a disease outbreak or disaster.
Health Care Homes
Goals are to: continue building a strong primary care foundation to ensure all Minnesotans have the opportunity to receive team-based, coordinated, patient-centered care; increase care coordination and collaboration between primary care clinicians and community resources to support whole person care and facilitate the broader goals of improving population health and health equity; improve the quality, experience and value of care.
See also > Health Policy Division
Health Economics Program
Monitors Minnesota health care revenues, expenditures and trends. Researches and develops recommendations for state policies affecting the health care market. Also conducts special studies to evaluate health care reform initiatives.
See also > Health Policy Division
Health Facility Complaints
Accepts and investigates complaints about health care facilities in Minnesota, including reports of neglect or abuse involving "vulnerable adults" who live in those facilities.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Health Occupations Program
Works to safeguard the quality of care provided by allied health care practitioners, and investigates complaints about those practitioners.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Home Care and Assisted Living Program
The purpose of the Home Care and Assisted Living Program (HCALP) is to protect, maintain and improve the health of Minnesotans who receive home care and home management services.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Human Resources Management
Services include personnel administration, working in partnership with managers and supervisors at all levels of MDH in furthering sound management practices and ensuring that the standards of civil service law, collective bargaining agreements and department policies and procedures are maintained.
Indoor Environments and Radiation
Works to prevent or reduce exposures to health hazards in the environment, such as asbestos, lead, radon, environmental tobacco smoke, radiation, and indoor air contaminants.
- Asbestos
- Indoor Air
Enforces the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act and rules, and enclosed arena rules. Responds to inquiries and complaints about indoor air quality. - Lead
- Radiation Control
Establishes standards for the use of radiation producing equipment and inspects new installations of radiation producing equipment. Inspects one quarter of 4,400 facilities with radiation producing equipment annually. Inspects 227 mammography facilities annually. Conducts environmental sampling to monitor the areas around Minnesota's nuclear power plants.
See also > Environmental Health Division
Infectious Disease Laboratory
Performs tests for communicable diseases, hereditary diseases in newborns, and rabies, in support of disease outbreak investigations and other public health activities. Does confirmatory testing, using state-of-the-art techniques not available in most labs.
See also > Public Health Laboratory Division
Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Communications and Administrative Services
Provides assistance and resources to the sections within the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division in communicating and educating the public and health care providers about infectious diseases. Maintains the work of the division through administrative support, including purchasing, processing payments, scheduling meetings, answering phones, and data entry.
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Injury and Violence Prevention
Works to reduce the risk of injury and violence for all Minnesotans. Provides data, resources and consultation to assist in the development of community intervention and prevention programs.
See also > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Legislative Relations
Coordinates state legislative activities and monitors federal legislative activities for the department. Leads the department in the process of planning, organizing, and prioritizing proposals for each legislative session. Leads the process of developing department legislative strategy.
Licensing and Certification
Licenses and inspects hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers. Also certifies health care facilities and other providers that take part in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Managed Care Systems
Works to ensure that Minnesotans who receive their health coverage through managed care plans have access to high-quality health care services and that the managed care plans market their services appropriately and are financially stable.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Maternal and Child Health
Promotes better health for children, youth, women, and their families by providing technical assistance and administrative support to local public health agencies, health care providers, and health planners.
See also > Child and Family Health Division
Minnesota Children and Youth with Special Health Needs
Promotes the development of coordinated systems of care for children with special health needs that are family-centered, community-based, and culturally competent.
See also > Child and Family Health Division
Mortuary Science
Licenses funeral homes, morticians, and funeral directors. Helps set minimum educational and practice standards for funeral service practitioners, and oversees the license examination process for funeral service occupations.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Newborn Screening
Works with hospitals and medical professionals statewide to provide testing to Minnesota newborns for more than 50 rare, but serious disorders.
See also > Public Health Laboratory Division
Nursing Assistant Registry
Registers qualified nursing assistants to work in long-term care facilities; maintains information about nursing assistants who have substantiated findings of abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of property; and approves and monitors nursing assistant training and competency evaluation programs.
See also > Health Regulation Division
Office of American Indian Health
The office was created to improve the health and wellbeing of Minnesota American Indian communities and to ensure Tribal and urban Indian communities are represented in all of Minnesota's public health initiatives. The office promotes health in American Indian communities through partnerships, targeted initiatives and a broad spectrum of public investments in housing, transportation, education, health care, economic opportunity, and criminal justice.
Office of Health Information Technology (Minnesota e-Health Initiative)
The Minnesota e-Health Initiative is a public-private collaborative effort to improve health care quality, increase patient safety, reduce health care costs, and enable individuals and communities to make the best possible health decisions by accelerating the adoption and use of health information technology.
See also > Health Policy Division
Office of Rural Health and Primary Care
Initiates, coordinates, and promotes safeguarding the quality of health care and ensuring access to care in rural and under-served urban areas of Minnesota.
See also > Health Policy Division
Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives
OSHII supports all Minnesotans in leading healthier lives and building healthier communities by preventing chronic diseases before they start. It partners with local public health and tribal nations, community leadership teams, and other stakeholders to create community-level policy and environmental changes that promote and support individual choices that lead to increased healthy eating and active living and reduced commercial tobacco use.
Office of Vital Records
The Office of Vital Records maintains birth and death records for the state of Minnesota.
See also > Health Policy Division
Public Health Practice
Promotes and supports the partnership between state and local governments. Administers the Local Public Health Act and bioterrorism grants/reporting. Provides consultation, technical assistance, and training to increase the capacity of state and local public health staff and local elected officials. Coordinates and supports major state and local public health planning efforts, and conducts policy development on issues that affect the public's health. Promotes innovations in public health practice and participates in, supports, or leads (as appropriate) activities to develop Minnesota's public health workforce.
See also > Community Health Division
Sage Screening Program
A program to provide quality breast and cervical cancer screening free of charge to low and moderate income Minnesota women age 40 and over who are uninsured or underinsured.
See also > Cancer Control Program
STD, HIV, and TB
Works to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), and tuberculosis (TB). Monitors the occurrence of these diseases, takes action to prevent or control potential outbreaks, educates the public and health care and community-based providers about these diseases, and works to safeguard the health of all Minnesotans, with a special emphasis on communities disproportionately impacted by these diseases.
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Supplemental Nutrition Programs
Provides prescribed supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health services to low-income, high-risk women, infants, and young children. Provides commodity foods and nutrition education to low-income mothers, children, and elderly persons.
See also > Child and Family Health Division
Tobacco Prevention and Control
Reduces the negative effects of tobacco by promoting the elimination of environmental tobacco smoke, reducing tobacco advertising and promotion, reducing young people's access to tobacco, and promoting economic policies that discourage tobacco use.
See also > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Vaccine Preventable Diseases
Works to ensure that children and adults are properly immunized against vaccine-preventable disease, supplies free vaccines for children who are eligible for the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, monitors the state’s immunization rates, coordinates investigations of vaccine-preventable diseases, and maintains and updates the Minnesota Immunization Information Connection (MIIC).
See also > Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
Well Management
Works to protect the health of Minnesotans who drink well water and to protect the groundwater resources of Minnesota through proper construction of new wells and borings and through the timely and proper sealing of old wells and borings.
See also > Environmental Health Division
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