Capacity Building in State and Local Health Departments: A National View

Tuesday, June 21, 2016: 2:00 PM
Tikahtnu C&F, Dena'ina Convention Center
Debra Bara , Public Health Informatics Institute, Decatur, GA
BACKGROUND:  

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and PHII collaborated to create and test an instrument to allow programs and/or organizations to assess their capability related to building informatics capacity within their agency. 

METHODS:  

The instrument is designed as a self-assessment based to help organizations adopt best practices in targeted domains. The initial framework was developed based on translating the 2009 Informatics Competencies to organizational capacities.  The paper-based questionnaire is designed to prompt an informed discussion among agency staff to reach a common view on their informatics capabilities and capacity. The scale is adapted from the Capability Maturity Model ™ developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The assessment was piloted with the MDH, three local health departments and the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division. In Oregon, both system (agency wide) and program level (3 Centers and 7 programs) assessments were conducted as part of the pilots. The instrument was refined based on feedback. After revisions, it subsequently piloted at three additional local health departments in Minnesota to ensure applicability for a wide range of types and sizes of public health agencies

RESULTS:  

Over the past year, there have been nearly 500 visits to the  informatics-savvy resources on PHII’s website and its related pages. Users who accessed the resource have come from a variety of locations throughout the US, primarily Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., Nashville and Indianapolis.   Washington State used the results to initiate and inform an operational plan for their newly established informatics office.  Other agencies have used it to prepare for accreditation, conduct strategic planning, and establish goals for improved performance.

CONCLUSIONS:

Feedback indicates the assessment is useful for agencies to achieve a shared understanding of their informatics capacities and capabilities. Completing the assessment has allowed health department staff to develop both high-level strategies, and tactical/operational steps they can take to improve the agencies informatics capabilities