Achieving an effective, low cost quality improvement system for public health agencies

How can you build an evaluation process that is utilized throughout a large multi-program public health and child welfare organization? How can results aid program staff in their efforts to strengthen practice while demonstrating outcomes to funding sources, the Board of Directors and other interested community stakeholders? Building on the strategic plan developed and supported by the board of directors, an outcome measures reporting and results based decision making system was developed and implemented in an inexpensive data tracking system to be utilized by programs managers, agency leadership, and the Board of Directors. Planning meetings were held to identify the indicators needed to measure outcomes associated with the strategic plan. Meetings with program staff were held to develop an integrated logic model with measures reflecting key outcomes to be achieved by each program. Data collection tools and methods were developed that were both efficient and user-friendly for quality assurance staff. Data are collected quarterly and reports of the results are generated and are contained in a routinely updated document providing quarterly benchmarks and figures illustrating outcomes tracked over 5 years. These data are also compared to customer satisfaction surveys tracking client reports about their experience with the programs. This workshop will provide information on key steps in the development and sustainability process for establishing an integrated data system for multiple systems (programs) and interoperability. The workship will provide participants with information that will result in their ability to: 1) articulate how to effectively collaborate to build an effective outcome evaluation system, 2) design a multi-level agency-wide outcome measures strategy and 3) understand key elements in sustaining an agency-wide system.