Accreditation includes a focus on the use and integration of performance management and quality improvement practices and processes for the continuous improvement of the public health department's practices, programs, and interventions. Areas of interest include a department's adopted performance management system and the department's written quality improvement plan. Performance Management and Quality Improvement are both addressed in DPH's Quality Plan. This plan identifies the processes and activities that will be put into place to ensure that quality services are consistently provided and is required for any department seeking PHAB accreditation.

Developing a Quality Improvement (QI) Project For more information and guidance on how to understand following tools and techniques, check out the Embracing Quality in Public Health Guidebook. Chapter 7, on PDF page 59, focuses on the utilizing quality improvement tools.

Tools and Templates

• Aim Statement - First step in a QI Project, aim statements are very specific declarations of what a team will focus on while striving to improve a process (Guidebook PDF pg 44).
  • DPH Drinking Water Sanitary Survey Aim Statement
  • DPH Food Protection Aim Statement


• Team Charter - The charter is you team's roadmap; it helps reduce the "now what?" feeling many teams experience early on and is typically a one or two page document that describes the team's purpose and targeted improvement (Guidebook PDF pg 28).
  • DPH Drinking Water Sanitary Survey Team Charter
  • DPH Food Protection Team Charter


• Root Cause/Fishbone/Cause and Effect Diagram - A Fishbone diagram (cause and effect diagram) identifies possible causes of a problem and encourages your team to consider possible causes that might not be readily apparent.(Guidebook PDF pg 64).
  • Data Access Fishbone Example


• Process Map - A Process Map is a diagram or flowchart of the steps you take to get a job done and is a very useful tool for learning about the processes in your health department (Guidebook PDF pg 61).
  • DPH Student Internship Process Map
  • Sociodemographic Data Collection Process Map


• Project Plan - A project plan allows the team to document project tasks and activities, who will be responsible for completing those tasks, and a timeline for when activities will be completed.
  • DPH Drinking Water Sanitary Survey Project Plan
  • DPH Food Protection Project Plan


• QI Story Board- The QI Story Board is great method to help your health department tell the story of your QI project to internal and external stakeholders (Guidebook PDF pg 42)
  • DPH Tumor Registry Story Board
  • Norwalk Health Department Story Board

Performance Management Strategies

• Healthy Connecticut 2020 Performance Dashboard is a web-based application that operationalizes the performance management system at DPH. The dashboard provides a mechanism to publicly display progress in meeting the Healthy Connecticut 2020 State Health Improvement Plan objectives and allows program staff and supervisors to monitor the work of programs within DPH to identify both successes and opportunities for improvement.
• DPH has adopted the Turning Point Performance Management framework as the underpinning for performance improvement work in the department. The framework is organized around each of the four components of a performance management system including: (1) Performance Standards, (2) Performance Measurement, (3) Reporting a Progress, and (4) Quality Improvement

 

 

Updated: July 2023