Application of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) Analysis for the Prioritization of Community Health Program Objectives

Introduction:	An often overlooked and poorly understood aspect of community health is the importance of public health emergency preparedness, which, impacts not only policy development within PH programs but also has a direct affect on the wellbeing of communities prior to, during and following public heath emergencies/disasters.
Methods:	In anticipation of an outbreak of Ebola in Maryland, OPR conducted six tabletop exercises across Maryland.  OPR canvassed participants using a SWOT Analysis based on-line survey tool to assess various public health preparedness capabilities which could directly affect the department's ability to protect community's health during an emerging infectious disease incident.  The number and frequency of comments made for each SWOT category under each capability was determined.  The relationship between capabilities within the SWOT categories was tabulated, as well as the relationship of capabilities across SWOT categories.  Lastly, a mathematical computation was utilized to assess the relative insufficiencies vs competencies for each capability.
Results:	Capability analysis demonstrated that Incident Management was a  frequently cited strength and opportunity; ranking low as a weakness and threat.  Whereas, Resource Management ranked low as a strength, but rated highly as a weakness and threat.  Determination of relative gaps between these capabilities resulted in a +11% vs. -43% for Incident and Resource Management respectively.  Thus, indicating greater insufficiencies and gaps in Resource compared to Incident Management.  Therefore, community health efforts should focus on resource management.
Conclusions:	Utilization and application of SWOT analysis permits quantitative evaluation of effectiveness for prioritizing public health program objectives with significant community impact.