181286 Performance standards: The first step in linking community health assessment practice with public health impact and outcome

Monday, October 27, 2008: 2:45 PM

Christine Abarca, MPH, CHES , Office of Health Statistics and Assessment, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL
C. Meade Grigg, MA , Office of Planning, Evaluation and Data Analysis, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL
Jo Ann Steele, MPH , Office of Planning, Evaluation and Data Analysis, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL
Laurie Osgood, BA , Office of Planning, Evaluation and Data Analysis, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL
Comprehensive community health assessment is a foundational step towards improving and promoting healthier communities. In Florida, this core public health function of systematically collecting, analyzing and using information to educate and mobilize communities, develop priorities, gather resources and plan actions to impact the public's health is supported by the Department of Health's COMPASS (Comprehensive Assessment, Strategic Success) initiative. Among the steps to institutionalize and evaluate practice in Florida are the development of performance standards, benchmarks and a monitoring process that may be used to measure impact and outcomes. As a participating state in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Cooperative Agreement to Support Assessment Initiatives, Florida's COMPASS team has been tasked with convening a multi-state workgroup to identify and develop performance standards for community health assessment practice. Drawing from National Public Health Performance Standards Program measures and state-identified performance measures related to community health assessment, the standards and benchmarks are being developed through a collaborative effort which will yield products for application across public health systems. It is envisioned that these standards and benchmarks will provide guidance for robust practice, deliver tools that can be used to monitor performance and outcomes and contribute to the development of an evidence-base for community health assessment practice. This presentation will describe the rationale, development process and resulting products.

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify key elements of community health assessment practice 2. Describe steps in establishing definitions, performance standards, and benchmarks for community health assessment practice 3. Articulate the role of performance standards in measuring impact and outcomes

Keywords: Community Health Assessment, Performance Measures

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I coordinate the Florida Dept of Health's statewide community health assessment and health improvement planning initiative
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.