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302551
Measuring the Costs of Implementing Quality Improvement Initiatives for Local Health Departments in Nebraska
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
: 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM
Li-Wu Chen, PhD
,
College of Public Health, Department of Health Services Research and Administration, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Janelle Jacobson, MPH, CHES
,
Department of Health Services Research and Administration, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Anh Nguyen, MSPH
,
College of Public Health - Department of Health Services Research & Administration, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Niodita Gupta, MD, MPH
,
Department of Health Services Research and Administration, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Sarbinaz Bekmuratova, MS
,
Department of Health Services Research and Administration, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
David Palm, PhD
,
Office of Community and Rural Health, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Lincoln, NE
The implementation of quality improvement (QI) initiatives in local health departments (LHDs) may have a great potential to enhance the value of public health services. However, there has been very little research on the cost required for LHDs to implement QI initiatives. Knowing this information will enable LHDs to better allocate and utilize their limited resources for suitable QI initiatives. Our earlier research has suggested that most Nebraska LHDs still had low capacity and inadequate resources to implement QI initiatives (Chen et al, 2012). Therefore, the cost information on the various types of QI initiatives and tools would be especially valuable to those LHDs that are still in the early stage of QI implementation, while facing significant budget constraints. We have engaged with the Nebraska Public Health Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) and selected 4 Nebraska LHDs for this RWJF-funded study. Varying by size and rurality, the 4 LHDs implemented different QI initiatives and tools (e.g., Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, Root Cause Analysis, Six Sigma, Fishbone Diagram) to improve different public health services (e.g., breastfeeding education) or business processes (e.g., policy retrieval and review process). In order to compare the costs among different QI initiatives, we use the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis tool as a common analytical framework to analyze the processes targeted by the 4 QI initiatives. We follow the standard procedures of economic evaluation established by Drummond et al. (1997) to conduct our cost estimation and analysis of LHD QI initiatives. A combination of telephone interviews and surveys of key informants is used to collect three major components of cost: direct labor, indirect labor, and non-labor. The cost estimation includes variable costs, fixed costs, and unit cost for each QI initiative. We are currently collecting data from the 4 LHDs and expect to have our results by June of 2014.
Learning Areas:
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Describes the methods and process used to estimate the costs associated with the implementation of quality improvement initiatives within a local health department setting.
Discuss the costs required for local health departments to implement different quality improvement initiatives and tools
Keyword(s): Quality Improvement, Funding/Financing
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal investigator of multiple funded projects in the areas of public health services and systems research and quality improvement studies.
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.
