Use Community Balanced Scorecards to mesh strategic planning, health improvement planning, and accreditation

This paper and presentation will explore how Community Balanced Scorecard (CBSC) tools are being used by state and local health departments for community health improvement planning and strategic planning. It will especially focus on two states—Delaware and New York—that have begun using these tools to produce either a strategic plan AND simultaneously prepare for accreditation. And it will also examine several local health departments in other states that have used these tools for health improvement plans. Delaware and New York are also connecting their plans to their emerging performance management systems. The author was engaged by ASTHO to assist these states through a CDC-funded accreditation technical assistance program. The range in size and public health organization of the two states and local health departments will provide an interesting mix of cases and comparisons in planning approaches. The author will also show how a “strategy mapping template” developed based on the essential services of public health and the accreditation domains of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) helps health departments achieve dual or triple purposes with CBSC tools. By structuring their strategic plans and community or state health improvement plans based on such a template, health departments not only achieve pre-requisites for accreditation, they also position themselves to make strategic improvements that can be tracked back to the PHAB domains for evidence of making progress toward accreditation standards. Also, as CBSC tools are outcome-oriented, this approach provides a route to accreditation that is focused on improving public health outcomes rather than a “check the box” approach to accreditation.