Community health assessments and improvement plans: A quality analysis

Community health assessments (CHA) and improvement plans (CHIP) are a critical function of local health departments (LHD) mandated by state statute in Wisconsin and a core component of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) Standards. As other partners, such as hospitals, enter the community health improvement environment, the importance of public health-led CHAs and CHIPS is increasing. Despite their central function in public health practice, there is limited research that measures the content or quality of these processes. This session will present the results of a study, conducted under the auspices of the Wisconsin Public Health Practice Based Research Network and funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's public health practice based research program, to measure the quality of Wisconsin's health improvement processes. A CHA/CHIP quality measurement tool, based on the literature and the PHAB standards, was developed and used to measure the quality of Wisconsin's 92 local health departments' CHA's and CHIP's. The tool focused on each of the steps in the health improvement process—working together, assessing needs and resources, picking priorities, finding policies and programs that work, implementing strategies, and evaluating progress. Findings will inform the creation of a self-assessment tool for local practitioners, identify training and technical assistance needs of LHDs, and provide the foundation for future research.