Performance Improvement

Public health performance improvement is positive change in public health capacity, processes, or outcomes through the use of clear and aligned planning, monitoring, and improvement activities. Performance improvement relies on the use of evidence and continuous, formal activities that strengthen public health organizations and systems. It can occur and be measured at the system, organization, program, or employee level. Performance improvement activities are essential to ensure that our work is advancing health equity through the use of data, planning, and partnerships.

The Performance Improvement team at NACCHO has expertise in the following areas. Click on any of the links below to find our tools, resources, and current and past projects in each of these areas.

Read our Performance Improvement success stories from Columbus Public Health and Salt Lake City Public Health, where rigorous quality improvement (QI) led to enhanced teamwork and effective fiscal management.

NACCHO's Stories from the Field highlights local health department successes, challenges, and innovations. Public health is evolving to take a more holistic approach to population health by focusing on the social determinants of health (SDOH)—the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age, and which are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources. In 2019, NACCHO added Healthy People 2020 SDOH tags, according to the specific SDOH areas addressed through the initiatives, to the Stories from the Field. It is now possible for communities to see how SDOH are being addressed at the local level to ameliorate a broad range of health concerns.

NACCHO’s Performance Improvement team makes it a priority to monitor and contribute to the latest public health performance improvement research and editorials in the field. These publications, authored by NACCHO staff or related to NACCHO PI programs, are geared toward public health practitioners offering peer reviewed research, the latest trends, and various field perspectives on the latest performance improvement happenings at the local, state, and national levels.

The NACCHO PI team has a wide range of expertise and extensive experience with providing PI related technical assistance (TA) to LHDs.

Please email [email protected] for TA requests and questions.

To get the latest information on public health performance improvement tools, resources, best/promising practices, and funding opportunities, sign-up to receive NACCHO’s PI Compass e-newsletter. Each issue features resources and events under the performance improvement umbrella, including accreditation, quality improvement, performance management, CHA/CHIP, and health equity.

Please forward this information to your colleagues and partners, and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe, please log-in to your My NACCHO account. If you do not have a “My NACCHO” account you can sign up by clicking here.

• Once logged on click on “My Subscriptions” in the left navigation menu
• Check the box for “PI Compass”
• Click “Save” at the bottom of the page

For more information about our Performance Improvement team, you can use the form above or email [email protected].