CDC Reorganized to Face 21st Century Health Threats
- On April 21, 2005, the U.S. Congress accepted CDC's new strategic reorganization, including the creation of four new coordinating centers and two new national centers.
- The major restructuring is complete and budgets have been aligned to the new structure. With the frame in place, adjustments to smaller parts of the organization can now be completed.
- Strong public health leaders are at the helm of the agency's new coordinating offices/centers and national centers. To get to know CDC's leaders, visit http://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership/leaders.htm.
CDC's recent strategic reorganization was the first effort to modernize the agency's workflow in more than 20 years. During the last major transformation, CDC had 4,000 employees and a budget of approximately $300 million. Today, CDC's combined workforce (employees and contractors) is approximately 15,000 with a budget of approximately $8 billion.
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CDC's job is to protect lives and improve health. CDC's health protection goals were developed to meet existing and emerging health needs in the 21st century by impacting healthy people 1) in every stage of life; 2) in healthy places; 3) prepared for emerging threats; and 4) living in a healthy world.
These Health Protection Goals help CDC:
- Provide improved order to the organization, making the best use of CDC resources to achieve health impact.
- Impose stronger discipline on CDC activities and performance.
- Organize CDC's portfolio by giving priority to activities that have the greatest health impact and reduce health disparities.
- Align CDC's annual budget to these priorities.
- Demonstrate accountability for the funding that Congress gives CDC.
Within the new structure, CDC's scientists are better able to share their expertise to solve public health problems, emergencies or not; streamline the flow of information for leadership decision-making; and better leverage the expertise of partners.
The scientific core of CDC remains the same. The changes added greater agility and accountability.
For example, CDC reallocated more than 600 open positions from administrative tasks to mission direct research and program activity positions—such as epidemiologists, medical officers, and laboratorians.
CDC reduced administrative costs by more than $83 million and made these resources available for frontline projects that directly benefit health.
CDC is saving $35 million over 7 years and improved our customer service by consolidating its 40 separate information hotlines into a single hotline.
The changes brought about in this process were achieved within budget and employee-positions ceilings for FY2005 (the year of the restructuring). No one lost their job because of this modernization effort.
CDC took on the restructuring with sobering facts in mind. America is a very different place from what it was just a few years ago.
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On July 1, 1946, the CDC, then known as the Communicable Disease Center, stepped into the world of public health. Sixty years later, CDC is recognized around the world as a leading force in public health expertise.
In its 60th year, CDC used DNA "fingerprinting" to track down the e-coli bacteria found in fresh spinach while other CDC scientists identified the cause of nearly two-dozen mysterious deaths in Panama. The deaths were caused by diethylene glycol (DEG) found in government-made, generic-label sugar-free cough and anti-allergy syrups.
To protect and improve the health of the American people in the 21st century, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a strategic planning process in June 2003 that culminated with the support of the U.S. Congress on April 1, 2005. For more about this topic, visit CDC's virtual press room. For more information about CDC's organizational elements, read about CDC's new organization.