DHMH Policies

Welcome to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Policy and Procedure Internet web site.  This site was designed to facilitate the access of DHMH policies by staff and management.  Only current, Department-wide policies are addressed at this site.  Other directives, sometimes generically called "policies" exist at the program level, such as at DHMH facilities, and there are also other directives in the form of guidelines, protocols, standards, manuals, etc. which may provide the advice which you are seeking on specific issues.

 

DHMH 02.10.03, The DHMH Policy on Policies, provides the authority and specifications for the development of DHMH policies. See http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/policies/021003v1.pdf. 

 

As stated in 02.10.03, a "policy" is defined as "a plan of action or decision-making to be used by DHMH employees and management when encountering certain issues or conditions that are of such significance, that a desired outcome has been prescribed".  A "procedure" is defined as "a step-by-step process of interactions between designated individuals (actors), for the purpose of carrying out a DHMH policy."

 

Quite often, DHMH policies are used to implement State or Federal mandates in order to ensure DHMH compliance, and also where an issue may span across two or more administrations.

 

DHMH policies differ from other directives in that they:

• must undergo a prescribed review and approval process by affected program Directors;

• apply to any or all DHMH programs, employees, grantees, contractors, or agents;  and

• are signed by and issued under the authority of  the Secretary.

To cross-reference old DHMH policy numbers with the current numbering system, or to check on the status of an old policy, see http://dhmh.state.md.us/policies/oldnewst.pdf

 

 

If you have any general questions regarding policies or procedures, please contact Tom Kravitz, DHMH Policy Administrator, at 410 767-5934 or kravitzt@dhmh.state.md.us.

NOTE: Some of the DHMH Policies below are in pdf format. To view pdf documents, you must have a .pdf reader, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader ® 4.0 (or newer).  Select the following URL to retrieve & download Adobe Reader. Use the Save As command to save the file onto your hard drive or onto a diskette using a different name. You must then install the downloaded file and reboot your machine before it will read the .pdf automatically when you click on it. Instructions on how to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader ® can be found by clicking here.