226813 Working Smarter, Not Harder: Applying Quality Improvement to Workforce in a Local Health Department

Monday, November 8, 2010

Grace Gorenflo, MPH, RN , Project Director, Accrediation Preparation and Quality Improvement, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Washington, DC
Camille Bissainthe , Department of Quality Improvement, Osceola County Health Department, Kissimee, FL
As health departments are being asked to do increasingly more with decreasing funding, there is a greater need to use efficient processes and develop local public health workforces capable of handling new challenges. This session will cover the basic components of the Plan-Do-Study-Act quality improvement (QI) process, and showcase how local health department Osceola County Health Department (OCHD) in Florida used QI tools and processes to increase staff knowledge of performance planning by 81% through two QI cycles. OCHD will share lessons learned and best practices from their QI experiences, as they showcase a cycle of improvement in obtaining more meaningful performance plans from a great percentage of the staff, and the development of a coordinated continuing education program to ensure a competent public health workforce.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1. Articulate basic steps involved with the four phases of the PDCA quality improvement model 2.Describe an example of how quality improvement processes can be applied in local health departments to produce measurable improvements 3.Explain the application of two quality improvement tools

Keywords: Quality Improvement, Local Public Health Agencies

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I oversee that National Association of County and City Health Officials' national accrediation preparation and quality improvement projects, have have more than 20 years experience with local public health agencies.
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.

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