Texas. State Dept. of Health.

Until it was abolished in 2004 and absorbed into the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Department of Health was the latest successor in a line of health-related state agencies: the Texas Quarantine Department (1879-1903), the Texas Department of Public Health and Vital Statistics (1903-1909), the Texas State Department of Health (1909-1975), and the Texas Department of Health Resources (1975-1977). The department became the State of Texas' primary agency for public health planning, services, and regulation.

The Texas Department of Health consisted of the Commissioner of Health, the administrative staff, and the chest hospitals at San Antonio and Harlingen. The Commissioner of Health was appointed every two years by the Texas Board of Health to be the administrative head of the Texas Department of Health and was required to be licensed to practice medicine in Texas. The commissioner was given overall management duties and powers of the Department of Health and was assisted in oversight functions by deputy commissioners, assistant deputy commissioners, and associate commissioners. By 1999, the Commissioner of Health headed an Executive Deputy Commissioner and four deputy commissioners. The deputy commissioners led Community Health and Prevention with six subsidiary bureaus; Health Care Financing with nine subsidiary bureaus; Public Health Sciences and Quality with ten subsidiary bureaus; and Administration which provided support services, legal services, and management and administrative services. Additionally, the Department was associated with the Texas Medical Disclosure Panel, the Texas Radiation Advisory Board, the Council of Sex Offender Treatment, the Toxic Substances Coordinating Committee, and the Health Professions Council.

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