Accreditation and QI, Indiana
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Starting in the mid-1980s, the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) developed local health department (LHD) performance standards and conducted annual site visits of all 94 LHDs in the state. LHDs measured themselves against the standards and developed action plans for areas of improvement based on feedback provided by ISDH staff. In the mid-1990s, ISDH partnered with the University of Alabama School of Public Health to undertake an agency-wide assessment and developed a quality improvement (QI) plan based on a detailed Strength-Weakness-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis. The analysis enabled ISDH to recognize that some programs were more valuable and needed additional resources, specifically budget and staffing allocations. Over the next decade, ISDH worked with the Indiana Medicine and Public Health Initiative to improve state-wide partnerships between private medicine and public health organizations. In 2007, ISDH started the Indiana Public Health System Quality Improvement Program (PHSQIP) by utilizing the National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) State and Local Instruments to develop project charters (improvement plans) based on assessment results. The project charters focus on community and state needs and, based on low scoring areas identified on the NPHPS assessments, integrate systemic performance improvement for any of the Ten Essential Public Health Services. In 2008, Indiana was chosen to participate in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC) project's third phase, Lead States in Public Health Quality Improvement, which assesses QI strategies to enhance the work of public health departments. ISDH leads this initiative with the help of the Purdue Healthcare Technical Assistance Program (TAP) and the Indiana Public Health Association (IPHA) and hopes to continue Indiana's state-wide QI efforts as a means to prepare for national accreditation in 2011.Learn more about the Public Health System Quality Improvement Program and their current activities by visiting this Web site.
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