141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

279728
Public health performance management systems organized as quality improvement cycles

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Paul David Epstein , Results That Matter Team, Epstein & Fass Associates, New York, NY
While health departments have succeeded in applying Quality Improvement (QI) techniques to improve narrowly-defined processes, few, if any, have made systematic use of QI principles for overall performance management of the agency. And as agencies prepare for public health accreditation, many find they are weak in the requirement for a performance management system. This presentation will provide an overview of a performance management approach the presenter has been developing with the Public Health Foundation based on the “PDCA” Plan-Do-Check-Act QI cycle that can be used for a system to continually improve agency performance in the pursuit of improving population health. The approach ties together health assessment, planning, strategy, QI, and performance management in integrated cycles, enabling agencies to meet many accreditation requirements in one system as they improve their performance. At least two state health departments and several dozen local health departments will begin testing this approach in the winter and spring of 2013, which will enable presentation of early experiences from the field. These will include comparisons of how the approach has been applied to different public health programs, and comparisons of applications mainly focused internally on agency performance and those focused more externally on managing community health system performance by agencies using collaborative processes such as NACHO's MAPP or Community Balanced Scorecards.

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

Learning Objectives:
Define “performance management” and “performance management systems.” Explain how “performance management” must be developed into a continually repeated cycle of measured results fed back into decision making to become a “performance management system." Describe how Quality Improvement (QI) can provide a framework for a performance management system by using the Plan-Do-Check-Act “PDCA” Cycle of QI (also called Plan-Do-Study-Act) as the basis for an entire health department’s performance management system. Explain how this approach can pull together the fundamental assessment, planning, QI, and performance management requirements for public health accreditation in one system. Discuss how “operational QI” of specific processes and practices can be integrated into a larger-scale PDCA-based performance management system for managing overall department performance consistent with priorities of a health improvement plan and strategic plan within budget constraints. Describe how collaborative planning and health improvement approaches, such as NACCHO’s MAPP and the Community Balanced Scorecard, can be integrated into a QI-based performance management system. Compare how different state and local public health agencies are beginning to use this approach to develop or improve their performance management systems.

Keywords: Performance Measurement, Quality Improvement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been engaged by the Public Health Foundation to develop the performance management system I will present as well as training and technical assistance to help health departments implement the system. I have received a lifetime achievement award in "performance measurement practice" from the American Society for Public Administration. I have assisted numerous state & local health agencies & partnerships in strategy development they can use for performance management.
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.