Description of PHF’s Services
In a drive to help public health systems save lives, cut costs, and get better results by managing performance, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) provides a comprehensive set of quality and performance improvement services. Through training, technical assistance, and coaching and collaborations with partners in quality improvement and public health, PHF helps public health organizations harness proven quality improvement techniques to benefit the public's health, drawing on the best available research, resources, and expertise from the private, public, and academic sectors.
Quality Improvement (QI) Evaluation Team Biographical Sketches (last updated 12/2008)
Quality Improvement (QI) Consultants Biographical Sketches (last updated 1/2009)
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Technical Assistance
PHF offers flexible and affordable consultation to help organizations improve health and build their public health infrastructure. To find out how PHF can assist your project, contact Jacalyn Carden.
PHF's Quality Improvement Learning Series Catalog
The purpose of the Quality Improvement Learning Series is to provide public health agencies and organizations with a wide variety of Quality Improvement programs, tools and techniques, which they will need to be successful in the implementation and expansion of Quality Improvement. Currently, there are 27 courses in QI (basic, intermediate and advanced levels) and eight consulting services available. Contact Jacalyn Carden if you would like to learn more about how PHF can customize its Learning Series to fit your particular public health needs.
Seminars to help professionals get results
PHF now offers affordable half-day or full-day seminars to help public health managers, partners, executives, or front-line staff manage performance and get better results. Some of our recent seminar engagements include pre-conference workshops or staff in-services for the following:
- Kansas Health Institute
- University of Pittsburgh, Center for Public Health Practice
- South Carolina Public Health Association
- National Network of Public Health Institutes
To request a seminar for your organization or conference, contact Jacalyn Carden. All PHF seminars and follow-up sessions are on a fee-for-service basis.
Technical assistance projects to help organizations solve public health problems
To get better results for the health of Americans, public health organizations must transform the way they manage performance and solve complex problems. For decades, other industries have employed quality improvement principles and techniques to solve problems, eliminate errors, save money, and get better results. PHF believes that many of these same techniques hold great promise for solving today's most urgent public health problems. The challenge lies in appropriately selecting, tailoring, and using the right tools that will work for public health. A quality improvement (QI) technique that works well to raise immunization rates in a single clinic may need modifications to improve rates for entire populations. Similarly, a service industry tool to get at the root cause of "late pizza deliveries" may not automatically translate to pinpoint the problem with "late communicable disease reports."
Experience tells us that it takes practice to find the "best practice." PHF is seeking clients to partner with PHF in results-oriented projects that apply promising QI techniques to public health problems, then evaluate their effectiveness. You benefit from PHF's expertise, training, and assistance to accelerate your performance improvement project, and the public health field will benefit from the lessons we learn together. For an example of such a project, see the Orange County Quality Improvement Project below. To initiate a project, you will need:
- Defined public health problem(s)
- Top leadership support for improvement
- A project manager
- A logistical coordinator or support person
- Ability to assign or recruit individuals to participate regularly in the QI team(s)
- Funding to cover PHF involvement and other expenses (Consider a state or local private foundation, hospital "conversion fund," or program grant)
- An evaluator (such as an academic partner or public health institute)
These collaborative, technical assistance projects build on methods, concepts, and materials developed by leading quality and performance improvement groups such as the American Society for Quality, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Goal QPC, ASTD, PHF, and Turning Point. For more information, contact Jacalyn Carden.
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Assisting Multi-State Learning Collaborative Grantees and State Health Departments Achieve Results
Overview
The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is ready to assist you in your Collaborative’s efforts by providing training, coaching, and consulting services. To date PHF, has provided quality improvement (QI) assistance to a dozen states and over 1,500 public health professionals.
These services can be tailored to incorporate QI techniques into existing performance and capacity improvement efforts, or be designed to initiate a new QI process for your Collaborative. The ultimate goal of these QI services is to help increase the ability of public health agencies to protect and improve the health of the people in the communities they serve.
PHF has a cadre of experienced public health trainers, facilitators, and consultants who will work with your Collaborative to ensure that the QI training and consulting interventions are focused on your specific needs.
Below is a brief description of some of the PHF’s services offered to help assist your Collaborative’s efforts. Contact PHF to discuss how services can be tailored to meet your specific needs.
Consultation on the design of your Collaborative
PHF will provide consulting assistance in the planning of your Collaborative, including the overall design of your approach to achieve results, selection of improvement projects, use of QI and problem solving models, communication of the program, engagement of leaders, evaluation of Collaborative activities, or other guidance based on PHF’s experience and best practices and your Collaborative’s needs.
PHF can provide the following services to help you design your Collaborative:
- Assess Readiness to determine training and consulting needs
- Select Improvement Projects
- Plan Project/Program Activities
- Prioritize Issues
- Communicate the Plan
- Train Leadership Teams
- Review Implementation Plan
Staff and Team Training
PHF will provide one to three day QI training programs that prepare your staff to have the skills and knowledge to function effectively on QI teams and make improvements that lead to better outcomes. Topics that are covered in this training include:
- Introduction to QI Principles for Addressing Health Problems
- How QI Can Help Public Health Teams Achieve Results
- Overview of Quality Improvement Methods
- Using the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
- Prioritizing Key Problems to Address
- Identifying “Root Causes” of Public Health Problems
- Flowchart the Process
- Error Proofing the Improved Process
- Designing a Rapid Cycle Test for Potential Improvements
- Instituting a Culture of Quality in Daily Work
- Redesigning a Process Versus Continuous Improvement
- Roles and Responsibilities of Team Member
PHF will work with you and your team to tailor a program to meet your needs. The training agenda for the Pennsylvania Department of Health is provided as an example of a QI training tailored to meet a health department’s needs.
Train-the-"Helper" Program
PHF will lead a three part sequential series of on-site training to prepare local QI “helpers” to provide technical assistance and support to your Collaborative’s partners. The on-site training sessions are scheduled with each individual Collaborative to meet its specific needs and maximize success. While PHF believes that this three part series will provide the best possible training for those assisting others within your Collaborative, this program can be modified to integrate with other programs you may be providing your local QI advisors.
The Train-the-Helper program will offer to participants a mixture of training, practicing QI techniques, and QI coaching following the on-site program. The Train-the-Helper program is designed to develop and build a cadre of in-house experts with the knowledge and skills to effectively assist your Collaborative and its teams. A certificate will be provided for satisfactory completion of the program.
Part 1 will provide two days of basic and intermediate skills training on the application of QI concepts and tools to help solve public health problems. Elements of the curriculum include:
- Basic Tools of QI
- PDCA and SDCA Cycles
- Continuous Improvement or Process Redesign
- Collecting and Analyzing Data
- Defining Critical Processes
- Customer Obsession and Levels of Customer Satisfaction
- Mapping Customer-Supplier Relationships
- Finding Improvement Opportunities
- Implementing Improvement Opportunities
- Being an Effective Team
- Making Decisions in a Team Environment
- Reporting of Results
Part 2 will provide two days of advanced training, practice, observation, and feedback on the facilitation of QI tools, team coaching, and the roles of staff consultants. This will include:
- Facilitating for Results in the Workplace
- Advanced QI Tools Use
- Conflict Management and Negotiating Skills
- Listening and Effective Communication
- Change Management Concepts
- Coaching Skills
Part 3 will provide two days of on-site training for staff that have completed the 4 day program and want to refresh and increase their skills as QI coaches. This program will help staff consultants take their QI coaching to the next level and expand their expertise in the use of additional tools and concepts for solving public health problems. Participants will be given training in presentation of methods and then assist the assigned faculty for segments of this training session. This program will be customized around the needs of the participants and the Collaborative.
Ongoing coaching from a distance for those going through this program can be provided as well as periodic partial or full-day refresher training programs. In addition, to help create a learning community of “helpers,” PHF can facilitate periodic conference calls with those providing QI assistance for your Collaborative. These conference calls can be used for exchanging of ideas, lessons learned, and additional training on QI techniques and tools that may be of particular use to the Collaborative’s ongoing efforts.
Technical Assistance
Examples of on-site technical assistance provided by PHF:
- Project team consultation, such as participating in and/or facilitating a full team meeting, and reviewing and commenting on team products to overcome obstacles to achieving measurable results.
- One-on-one consultation to assist collaborative leaders in guiding their teams, selecting the right tools, and overcoming obstacles.
- Facilitation of sessions to help teams “jump start” their QI activities.
Technical assistance at a distance also is offered by PHF to provide your Collaborative and/or individual team members with longer-term assistance.
Contact Jacalyn Carden, Associate Director for Performance Improvement at the Public Health Foundation, via email or at 202-218-4415 for further information on our offerings that are designed to keep your Collaborative on the cutting edge of Quality Improvement.
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Assisting Local Health Departments Achieve Results
Overview
The Public Health Foundation (PHF) has been assisting 10 local health departments (LHDs) with their Accreditation and Quality Improvement (QI) Demonstration Projects, supported by the National Association of County and City Health Officials. This QI assistance is helping LHDs achieve desired results.
PHF recognizes that each community has a unique public health system of individuals and organizations engaged in activities affecting the public’s health. Our QI assistance is tailored to help each LHD maximize its QI consultative investment to achieve better results that are focused on improving the health and well-being of its community.
PHF has a cadre of experienced QI consultants who work with LHDs to ensure that the QI technical assistance and consulting interventions are focused on each LHD’s specific needs. We are ready to help you and your LHD achieve improved results.
Successes have been achieved when LHDs apply quality tools and techniques to their public health improvement projects. For example, in Orange County Florida after the health department applied QI techniques the community witnessed a 30 percent reduction in syphilis rates in only nine months. With staff proficient in QI, these tools and techniques can be used to plan, communicate, and implement programs that make measurable improvements.
Below is a brief description of some of the PHF’s QI technical assistance, training, and coaching services offered to help your health department in its improvement efforts. Contact PHF to discuss how services can be tailored to meet your specific needs.
- QI Assessment
- Assess Readiness and Determine Skill Gaps
- Select Improvement Projects
- Prioritize Issues
- Communicate the QI Plan to Community Stakeholders
- Train Leadership Teams
- Review Implementation Plan
- An overview of the QI process focusing on the What and Why of QI
- 8 Strategies to Help Public Health Organizations Achieve Results & Support QI
- Getting Started on Improvement
- Getting Focused on Priority Outcomes
- Developing a QI Culture
- Creating a Culture of Quality
- Using Storyboards to Share Project Success
- Managing and supporting the project teams
- Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) and Standardize, Do, Check, Act (SDCA) Improvement Cycles
- Continuous Improvement or Process Redesign
- Tools of QI
- Overview of the Tools
- Voice of the Customer and Process
- Brainstorming
- Pareto Charts
- Data Gathering and Analysis
- Flow Charts
- Cause and Effect Diagrams
- Scatter and Run Charts
- Force Field Analysis
- Control Charts and Process Capability
- Instituting a Culture of Quality in Daily Work
- Who, What, and How of Daily Management
- Customer Obsession and Levels of Customer Satisfaction
- Assessing and Baselining Your Process – “As Is” State
- Identifying Critical Processes
- Customer-Supplier Mapping
- Daily Management Improvement Model
- Finding Improvement Opportunities
- Implementing Improvement Opportunities
- Performance Management and Quality Improvement
- Redesigning a Process Versus Continuous Improvement
- Laws of Process Redesign
- Choosing Critical Areas of Success
- The Core Process Redesign Model (CPR)
- Focus
- Assessment
- Negotiation
- Redesign
- Implementation
- Team Start-up Facilitation
- Developing High Performance Teams (HPT)
- Team Facilitation
- Roles and Responsibilities within Teams
- Nurturing and Growing Teams
- Sustaining a Teaming Effort
- Technical Assistance at a distance is also offered by PHF to provide your LHD and/or individual team members with longer-term assistance.
- Examples of these types of technical assistance services include:
- Project team consultation, such as participating in and/or facilitating a full team meeting, and reviewing and commenting on team products to overcome obstacles to achieving measurable results.
- One-on-one consultation to assist collaborative leaders in guiding their teams, selecting the right tools, and overcoming obstacles.
- Group facilitation of sessions to help teams “jump start” their QI activities
- Conference calls for exchanging of ideas, lessons learned, and additional technical assistance on QI techniques and tools that may be of particular use to the LHD’s ongoing improvement efforts.
Contact Jacalyn Carden, Associate Director for Performance Improvement at the Public Health Foundation, at 202-218-4415 or jcarden@phf.org for further information on our offerings that are designed to keep your LHD on the cutting edge of Quality Improvement.
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