Deck 17: Public Health Services and Systems Research

Question 1

One of the overarching goals of PHSSR has been to protect the public's health by improving the quality of public health service delivery. Quality improvement (QI) activities are formal methods to improve service delivery. What is one of the major QI initiatives in public health?

Answer 1

One major QI initiative in public health has been the advent of a voluntary national public health accreditation program guided by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). PHAB accreditation seeks to foster the development of a culture of continuous quality improvement in state, tribal, and local public health agencies through compliance with a set of standards and measures that reflect best practices in public health.

Question 2

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine completed a study focusing primarily on the financing of public health services. This report added a new paradigm for approaches to examining the public health services that a population would require. Describe the four areas the IOM report defined.

Answer 2

The IOM report defined the areas as:
-Foundational Capabilities: cross-cutting skills needed in state/local health departments everywhere for health system to work anywhere; essential skills/capacities to support all activities
-Foundational Areas: substantive areas of expertise or program-specific activities in all state/local health departments necessary to protect the community's health
-Programs/Activities Specific to a Health Department or a Community's Needs: additional, critical significance to a specific community's health, supported by Foundational Areas and Capacities; most of a health department's work
-Foundational Public Health Services: comprised of the Foundational Capacities and Areas; a suite of skills, programs/activities that must be available in state/local health departments system-wide

Question 3

What type of data on local public health agencies does NACCHO's National Profile of Local Public Health Departments provide?

Answer 3

NACCHO's National Profile of Local Public Health Departments provides data on:
-Capacity and makeup
-Workforce size and composition
-Services delivered by local public health agencies and their partners
-Agency financial data such as income and expenditure