Online Program

Oral

Population health improvement lies at the intersection and integration of both public health and healthcare services. Research has in fact shown that the greatest improvements in health outcomes occurred when areas needing improvement were targeted with public health and healthcare interventions. As such, quality in both sectors is needed to achieve population health improvement goals. Measuring to assess for the presence of public health quality is a vital component to identifying both quality strengths and gaps. The Nine Public Health Aims for Quality (PHAQ) were identified by the HHS Public Health Quality Forum (PHQF) to provide a framework to measure for public health quality. The PHAQ represent the high level characteristics that should be present in the public health system and represent an important step for improving how public health should operate. The PHAQ are: population-centered, effective, equitable, proactive, health-promoting, risk-reducing, vigilant, transparent, and efficient. A challenge is to translate these high-level concepts into actionable components that can be incorporated into implementable frameworks. The Public Health Systems, Finance, and Quality Program in OASH is the unique HHS program charged with building and disseminating system-level concepts to improve quality in public health. The quality concepts have applicability to public health practices and policies in governmental and non-governmental agencies. This panel will focus on recent advances in the operationalization of the PHAQ across a wide variety of settings. The application of the PHAQ in these projects demonstrates how system-level public health quality can be implemented.

Session Objectives: Define the Nine Public Health Aims for Quality (PHAQ) Describe how the PHAQ can be used to measure for quality in governmental and non-governmental organizations Design interventions framed by the 9 PHAQ Discuss the benefits of integrating public health and healthcare quality Explain the contribution of public health quality to population health improvements

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)