2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

324758
Determining Institutional Progress towards a Culture of Continuous Quality Improvement


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Alvaro Tinajero, MD, MPH, ScM, Center for Health Data and Analysis, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, RI
Magaly Angeloni, DrPH, MBA, Office of the Director, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, RI
  
The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) applied for national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). Public health agencies are required to develop and cultivate a culture of QI. To maintain accreditation, PHAB also requires health departments to meet standards in 12 domains (10 essential public health services, administration, and governance). Domain 9 (Evaluate and continuously improve processes, programs, and interventions) requires development and implementation of QI activities integrated into organizational practice, programs, and interventions. In 2012, HEALTH started training of its workforce in QI tools and methods. Trainees identify a program performance issue and then develop and complete an outcomes-based QI project eight-ten months after training completion.

A staff survey is one of HEALTH’s strategies to track institutional QI progress. We created a 16-item questionnaire based on NACCHO’s Roadmap to a Culture of Quality Improvement. The Roadmap describes institutional characteristics for each of six phases towards a QI culture, from agencies with no QI knowledge to those with fully integrated performance management systems. The survey addresses individual (QI awareness, perceptions, knowledge/skills, use of data, performance management practices) and agency-level characteristics (training and sources, staff/time allocation to QI activities). HEALTH staff from several programmatic areas and public health training backgrounds participated in the survey pilot. Electronic implementation is scheduled for February, 2015.

Survey findings will help determine the distribution of staff and public health programs in each of the six QI phases, and who and what needs to be targeted to strengthen HEALTH’s QI process. Survey findings will also provide a measurement baseline for future annual surveys and for determining progress over time.

Learning Areas:

Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related education
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe quality improvement awareness, perceptions, skills and practices at the Rhode Island Department of Health Define baseline for tracking institutional QI culture growth Assess opportunities for targeting staff not engaged in QI activities through training and program performance improvement projects

Keyword(s): Quality Improvement, Performance Measurement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Performance Improvement and Accreditation Manager for the RI Department of Health and it is my responsibility to lead and conduct an agency-wide strategy to bring the organization to instill a culture of quality improvement (QI). I have formulated, overseen and participated in the rationale, goals and strategy for the development of the QI assessment presented here for oral presentation. I also have experience, practice and academic background in public health.
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.

Back to: 4229.0: Benefits of evaluation and policy development