​As of July 1, 2007, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) Licensing and Certification Program (L&C) became part of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Center for Healthcare Quality (CHQ). While there will be no changes in the services provided to facilities and consumers by the Licensing and Certification Program (L&C), there are some changes related to street addresses, e-mail addresses and websites that you need to be aware of.

Update on the California Department of Health Services Reorganization

Senate Bill 162 (SB 162) established the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) within the existing Health and Human Services Agency and statutorily transferred certain responsibilities from the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) to the new CDPH, effective July 1, 2007. At the same time, CDHS was renamed the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

There are several benefits to the reorganization of the CDHS into CDPH and DHCS. It allows us:

• To provide more focused leadership in public health and health care financing at the state level.
• To streamline management of complex program components along functional lines.
• To create a more effective public health infrastructure in California resulting in decreased illness, injury, and death rates.
• To provide greater protection for California residents in the event of an act of bioterrorism or other major public health emergency.
• To increase accountability, responsiveness, effectiveness and transparency for the public health and health care purchasing functions of state government.
• To provide visibility on important health care issues to providers, local health departments, federal government, Legislature, advocates, press and general public.
• To recruit and retain top quality staff for the new Departments.

As of July 1, 2007 you will see a newly designed website for the Department of Public Health at www.cdph.ca.gov. From the website, you will find links to the Licensing and Certification Program. A new L&C website is operational while under construction and all L&C website information will be linked to the CDPH website by January 1, 2008.

As of July 1, 2007, e-mail addresses for staff have changed. New addresses will look like John.Smith@cdph.ca.gov. Up until January 1, 2008, mail sent to old e-mail addresses (i.e. jsmith@dhs.ca.gov) will be forwarded to the new e-mail addresses.

Current day-to-day operations for the Licensing and Certification Program will continue under the new California Department of Public Health. Post Office boxes and mail stop codes for various programs within L&C will remain the same after July 1, 2007.

Sincerely,

Original Signed by Kathleen Billingsley, R.N.

Kathleen Billingsley, R.N.
Deputy Director