Due to the focus on prevention inherent in community-based activities, outcome measures for public health workers in outreach programs are elusive. The City of Fort Worth Public Health Department has developed program performance outcome measures in order to capture and quantify the effect of outreach activity on the community. The subjective and often unpredictable nature of community outreach intervention often obscures quantification of these evaluations. Conversely, funding streams have become increasingly reliant on empirical outcome evaluations to justify allocation of fiscal resources. Therefore, evaluation of outreach activities in Fort Worth, a city with a population of over 500,000, is expressed in terms of "estimated societal cost benefits." Essential components for establishing these "cost benefits" include pre and post intervention measures, research of existing studies, and comprehensive documentation and follow-up of activities. Measures focus on long-term behavior changes rather than the traditional focus on consumer satisfaction and knowledge gained. Collaboration between the population-based services of the outreach staff and assessment staff is essential to assimilate and analyze the data that drive interventions and to evaluate impact. Through the orchestration of data driven interventions, subsequent outreach activities, and evaluation of resource allocations, a public health department can demonstrate fiscal benefits to the community that outweigh funding costs. The presentation illustrates that preventive efforts can be mobilized in a manner that demonstrates savings to the community in compelling fiscal terms.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to: 1) Develop program outcome performance measures that quantify estimated societal cost benefits of community outreach activities. 2) Identify the components and staff activities necessary to capture quantitative outcome measures. 3) Orchestrate health department activities, especially outreach efforts, to demonstrate fiscal benefits in excess of funding costs.
Keywords: Outcome Measures, Outreach Programs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.