The Texas Department of Health requires the following functions to be integrated into programs at HCPHD as part of its overall involvement in the provision of public health services to the county. HCPHD is very actively involved in these functions:

1. Health status monitoring and disease surveillance, which includes immunization tracking and community health assessments.
2. Investigation and control of diseases and injuries, including detection and investigation of communicable diseases, detection of chronic diseases, contact tracing and notification.
3. Health education and information, including education throughout the community about injury prevention, substance abuse, nutrition, parenting and sexuality education
4. Targeted outreach and linkage to health department services, including identifying families with high risks, case management services, referral to appropriate service systems and interpreter services.
5. Quality assurance and accountability, which includes evaluation of health department programs, enforcement of standard and monitoring access to healthcare services.
6. Training and education of healthcare professionals, including retraining to meet changes in public health practices and continuing education of the public health workforce.
7. Leadership, planning, policy development and administration, which includes coalition building for identified problems, planning for community involvement, developing new resources, and suggested legislation about public health issues.
8. Provision of healthcare where other resources are absent, including rural and remote locations, jails, community centers and undocumented aliens.