Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116008

Amy S. DeGroff, MPH, Public Administration and Urban Studies, Georgia State University, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, 378 Oakland Ave., SE, Atlanta, GA 30312, 404-277-1045, amydegroff@comcast.net

Performance measurement in the public sector has received significant attention during the past 15 years with both the public administration and evaluation professions including it as an essential component of performance management and comprehensive evaluation, respectively. Legislation such as the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) institutionalized performance measurement as a requirement of federal programs, including those of public health. Although evidence of the effectiveness of performance measurement is mixed and largely lacking, there has been substantial political impetus for it, particularly focused on its use to ensure government accountability through the demonstration of results or outcomes. Public health programs pose unique challenges for the successful implementation of performance measurement. These challenges include the complexity of public health programs and frequent lack of strong scientific evidence causally linking program activities to longer term outcomes, related issues of attribution, the decentralized nature of many public health programs, and data limitations. In particular, decentralized federal public health programs have significant implications for the development of performance measurement including variability in the activities implemented across state programs, capacity differentials, and varying data collection methods. This presentation will draw on multiple disciplines including public administration, public policy, evaluation, and public health, comprehensively synthesizing the relevant literature to present several dimensions of performance measurement including its purposes, strengths, limitations, challenges, and strategies for overcoming these challenges.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe performance measurement as an evaluation and public management tool in public health.
• Discuss the purposes, strengths, limitations, and challenges of performance measurement in decentralized public health programs.
• Define 6 strategies for implementing performance measurement that address the challenges.

Keywords: Evaluation, Performance Measurement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.