Dr. Courtney N. Phillips is the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, the state’s largest agency with a budget of $14 billion. Her oversight responsibilities include public health and other direct service programs for citizens in need such as behavioral health, developmental disabilities, aging and adult services, emergency preparedness, and the Medicaid program.
Dr. Phillips served as executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) where she was committed to improving the health, safety and well-being for millions of Texans. She was responsible for more than 40,000 team members, a $78.5 billion biennium budget and more than 220 programs ranging from health care, food safety and benefits to public health tracking and regulation of child care, nursing and health care facilities.
Under her leadership, Texas HHS developed its inaugural business plan, Blueprint for a Healthy Texas, which served as the agency’s guide to transform into a more efficient, effective and responsive system. In addition, the agency continued to transform inpatient psychiatric care through the construction and renovation of state hospitals across Texas, expanded its newborn screenings, eliminated the waitlist for outpatient mental health treatment through local mental health authorities, and improved access to women’s health and family planning services in Texas, including a 30 percent increase in the number of women served in the Healthy Texas Women program.
Before joining Texas HHS, Dr. Phillips served for three years as the chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and spent 12 years with the Louisiana Department of Health in a variety of roles, giving her keen insight into all health and human services operations.
Dr. Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a Master of Public Administration from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in public policy from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She continued honing her process-improvement skills by earning an Executive Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
The Secretary provides leadership and technical support services, while maximizing resources, in order to fulfill the mission of the Department.
The following report directly to the Secretary:
Deputy Secretary serves as the chief operating officer of LDH and acts as spokesperson for the department in the absence of the Secretary. The Deputy Secretary is the coordinator for LDH's Human Services Interagency Council (HSIC) and is solely responsible for direct supervision over the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities; Office of Behavioral Health; Office of Public Health; Office of Aging and Adult Services.
Undersecretary oversees the State Medicaid program, as well as eight administrative divisions with departmental responsibilities for budget preparation, financial planning, purchasing, personnel, accounting, data processing and development of strategic and operational plans.
State Health Officer serves as the Department's top medical official. The medical director is responsible for medical consultation on a variety of health care policy issues, including health care programs, quality of care and access to vital health-related services. The medical director also serves as the Department's liaison with medical, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health professionals as well as with professional associations and organizations throughout the state.
Office of Public Health develops, provides and assures public and environmental health services to protect and enhance the health of Louisiana citizens. Now functioning under the Office of Public Health, the Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health works to support the development of health care in underserved areas of the state by identifying resources to improve the health services, fostering networks of care and recruiting health care professionals.
External Relations efforts are led by the Bureau of Marketing and Communications (BMAC) and the Legislative and Governmental Relations (LGR) section of the Office of the Secretary.
Bureau of Legal Services provides a complete range of legal assistance to LDH, its programs and facilities.
Healthcare Ministries Timeline
1911 – Six Franciscans arrive in North America (Pineville, Louisiana)
1913 – St. Francis Hospital and Nursing School opens in Monroe, Louisiana
1923 – Our Lady of the Lake Hospital and Nursing School opens in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1949 – Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital opens in Lafayette, Louisiana
1984 – Parent organization called the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System is established
1990 – Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University opens in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Barriers to Health Fact Sheet
In the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), barriers to health (BTH), are seen as those factors that prevent an individual, popu-
lation, and/or community from acquiring a) access to health services and/or b) achieving their best health.1 LDH also recognizes
that barriers to health can be systems (i.e. structural determinants) that offer health care and services; these systems are shaped
by a wider set of forces: economics, social policies/social norms, and politics.3
Further, it is also important to note what may be a
barrier to one person, population, and/or community may be an asset to others, based on social and cultural factors. Thus, all
people, populations, and communities are not all the same and there must be intentionality in ensuring that all whom LDH serve
are treated and provided services in a matter that take into consideration-programmatically respond to the environments and
circumstances of people, populations, and communities—supporting them in achieving their fullest, best health.
Systems Can Be Barriers! Many of us understand that “... [a]ll social and political mechanisms that generate
... social class divisions in society and that define individual socioeconomic position within hierarchies of power,
prestige and access to resources... cause and operate through ... housing, physical work environment, social sup-
port, stress, nutrition and physical activity—to shape health.” 4 Thus, given what programs within departments of
health do and how they are funded and supported, it is very important that these health entities not operate in a
manner that contributes to the negative health outcomes of the people it serves.
Operate from a Health Equity lens! Operationalizing health equity protocol and practices that support and
ensure its programs and services are being provided in a matter that take into consideration - leverage, BTH to re-
duce and eliminate health inequities, thereby supporting and creating health equity.
LDH is Dedicated to Protecting and Promoting Health By:
Ensuring access to medical, preventive, and rehabilitative services for all citizens of Louisiana
Providing quality services
Making resources available to those in need utilization of available resources
Developing an agency-wide health equity plan, which will support the operationalizing of health equity protocols and practic-
es agency-wide in LDH
LDH’s Five Priority Health Areas Which Inform the Office of the Secretary’s Health Equity Plan:
Improving LDH’s Professionalism - In the rubric above we see many BTH. These barriers prevent people, populations, and
communities from achieving their best, fullest health outcomes. Given this, health department staff—their planning, program-
ming, and services, need to be informed by these barriers, particularly as it relates to improving population health. We must—to
eliminate or greatly reduce health inequalities, draw on the perspectives and resources (i.e. leveraging barriers) of all, diverse
communities.5 Drawing on and/or leveraging people, populations, and communities' BTH means we should align, intertwine,
and/or implement some of the following activities, resources, and/or best practices into our approaches,
programming and/or services, particularly as it relates to our five priorities:
Priorities Shared BTH BTH
Maternal Health Poverty, lack of access to healthcare and/or insurance,
poor communities, poor educational opportunity, racism,
stigma, discrimination
Structural determinant factors: no or very limited re-
sources to improve or leverage BTH or support agencies
that can reduce or elimination health inequalities
Lack—stable housing, social support
Cancer Neighborhood and built environment
Social and community context
HIV Lack of stable housing
Exposure—crime, violence, substance use
HEPATITIS C Lack of stable housing
Exposure—incarceration, substance use
Mental/Behavioral
health
Poverty level—lack of safe places to play/
be, food security
*BTH shared within this table are factors that contribute to health inequities, respective to the outlined priority/ies.
This list represents some of what can be done to counter—leverage, BTH.
Lastly, it is important for those developing, planning, and/or delivering prevention and health care services to be informed about and leverage
BTH. For this reason, this document, LDH Phase I and future II Health Equity Plans, Community Engagement Framework, and other materials have
been created to support the operationalizing of health equity practices and approaches agency-wide.
“Improving LDH professionalism, services and health/health outcomes.”
1. HWB, Unit 1— Health, Social Services and Children Services; Access and Barriers, United Kingdom, ND. https://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk/
VTC/2012-13/22032013/hsc/eng/unit_1/u1-a-and-b/u1-a-and-b1.htm
2. Centers for Disease Control, NCHHSTP Social Determinants of Health, United States, 2014.https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/social determi-
nants. Accessed May 8, 2019
3. Treatment Action Group, Structural and Social Determinants of Health, United States. http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/sites/default/
files/Structural%20Social%20Determinants_0.pdf. Accessed May 8, 2019
4. World Health Organization, World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, United States, 2010.https://www.who.int/sdhconference/
resources/ConceptualframeworkforactiononSDH_eng.pdf. Accessed May 8, 2019
5. Institute of Medicine. (2002). The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century. Washington, DC, The National Academies Press.
6. https://healthleadsusa.org/resource-library/roadmap/social-health-team-workflow/
7. https://ldi.upenn.edu/healthpolicysense/community-partnerships-address-social-determinants-health
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882967/
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816016
1996 – Assumption Community Hospital in Napoleonville becomes part of the health system.
2000 – St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales becomes part of the health system
2009 – Senior Service Division is created in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
2011 – Franciscan Health & Wellness program is created in Louisiana and in other states
2013 – Our Lady of the Lake Livingston opens in Livingston, Louisiana
2014 – Our Lady of the Angels Hospital opens in Bogalusa, Louisiana
2015 – Cristo Rey Franciscan High School opens in North Baton Rouge
2019 – Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital opens free-standing children's hospital
2019 – Women's and Children's Hospital is acquired and joins the Our Lady of Lourdes family
2019 – Transfer of sponsorship from the Domican Sisters of Springfield, Ill., is completed and St. Dominic Health Services in Mississippi joins the health system
How will the framework be implemented and monitored?
LDH’s Office of the Secretary (OS) wants to ensure that the framework makes a difference. Thus,
the Office of Community Partnerships and Health Equity (OCPHE) will be responsible for
overseeing the implementation and monitoring-reporting of LDH’s framework’s processes and
impact. Leadership inside LDH’s offices and/or programs are asked to identify personnel to be a
OCPHE Ambassador (offices can have more than one ambassador). This person is to be chosen by
the respective office’s leadership, to help monitor and report (i.e., documents) the offices
prioritized community engagement activities in its office. OCPHE request Ambassadors in the
following offices:
• Office of Public Health (Given
OPH’s scope and the health equity
expertise of some of their bureaus, its
leadership may want two or more
Ambassadors (i.e., per certain
bureaus)
• Office of Aging and Adult Services
• Office for Citizens with
Developmental Disabilities
• Office of Behavioral Health
• State Facilities
• Medicaid
Further, OCPHE will execute face-to-face and webinar workshops to prepare LDH for the
implementation and use of LDH Phase I Health Equity Plan and its tools. OCPHE will also provide
individual technical assistance to aid Ambassadors’ capacity to help support the implementation-
monitoring of the framework in their respective areas (reporting instructions and checklist tool will
be provided between December 2019 - January 2020). Further, Ambassadors will have a position on
their office’s health equity action team (HEAT). As a member of their office’s HEAT, Ambassadors
will share (at the monthly one-hour to one-hour and 30 minutes HEAT meeting) the office’s
prioritized community engagement activities – who, what, when, why (and possible feedback-
insight learned from the office’s individual community activities). The Ambassadors’ monthly
report out will also help to inform activities and priorities of its office HEAT, particularly as it
relates to feedback and insight learned from community.
OCPHE is setting up logistical processes and finalizing reporting tools between November 2019
thru January 2019. This prep period will help to ensure Ambassadors only spend three to four hours
(or less) a month working on the framework’s monitoring and reporting activities. Each office will
have their own formal Action Steps selection meeting. This meeting will consist of OCPHE staff,
the office’s leader/s (or office point person/s) and the office’s selected Ambassador/s. At this
meeting the office will identify 11 Action Steps (see pages 11 -14 and below) and review
Framework reporting instructions and checklist tool:
Again, each office is expected to select 11 Action Steps (four Action Steps are required) and the
office’s Ambassador/s will have a responsibility to monitor and report on the framework’s activities
at its office’s monthly HEAT meeting and in its quarterly reporting. This requirement is aligned
and had ready been updated (May 2019) within LDH’s 2017 – 2022 Strategic Plan. OCPHE staff
will compile the framework’s report every six months and present report/summaries-findings to OS
leadership and the future LDH Community Partnership Advisory Board – LDH Phase II Health
Equity Plan. The OS leadership and Community Partnership Advisory Board’s review of the
framework’s reports will provide another level of accountability for adherence to LDH’s health
equity strategic plans and the plans’ activities.1. 1.1a
2. 1.1b
3. 1.1c
4. 1.1d
5. 1.2a
6. 1.2b
7. 1.2c
8. 2.1a
9. 2.1b
10. 2.1c
11. 2.2a
12. 2.2b
13. 2.2c
14. 2.2d
15. 2.2e
16. 3.1a (Required)
17. 3.1b
18. 3.2a (Required)
19. 3.2b (Required)
20. 3.2c (Required)
21. 3.3a
Glossary of Terms Used throughout the Health Equity Plan
Community Engagement: Process of co-creating solutions in partnership with people, who
through their own experiences, know the barriers to opportunity best. It is grounded in
building relationships based on mutual respect and that acknowledge each person’s added
value to the developing solutions.
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards (CLASS): The National CLAS
Standards are intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate health
care disparities by establishing a blueprint for health and health care organizations - Principal
Standard: Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and
services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred
languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.
Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR): A collaborative process that equitably
involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each
brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of
combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and
eliminate health disparities. https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/CBPR.pdf
Health Disparity: Difference in health that is closely linked with social, economic, or
environmental disadvantage. Health disparities impact groups that systematically experience
greater obstacles including communities of color, American Indians, and persons with
disabilities.
Health Equity: Achieved when every person in a community has the opportunity to reach their
full health potential and no one is "disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of
social position or other socially determined circumstances."
Health Inequity: Differences in outcomes that are a result of systematic, avoidable and unjust
social and economic policies and practices that create barriers to opportunity.1
Social Determinants of Health: Structural determinants and conditions in which people are
born, grow, live, work and age. They include interconnected factors like socioeconomic
status, education, physical environment, employment, and social support networks, as well as
access to health care – not all determinants are barriers. http://kff.org/disparities-
policy/issuebrief/beyond-health-care-the-role-of-social-determinants-in-promoting-health-
and-health-equity/
Social Justice: the equitable distribution of social, economic, and political resources,
opportunities, and responsibilities and their consequences.2
33Edited August 2020
