PHF E-News: News for Public Health (May 2012)

Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence

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Topic: PHF News

Date: 5/21/2012

News from the

Public Health Foundation (PHF)

Dear Subscriber,

PHF E-News brings you the latest information on how you can use strategies to enhance organizational performance and improve the health of your community.

Use New Core Competencies Tools to Support Organizational Performance

The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) serve as a starting point for many public health organizations trying to better understand and meet their workforce development needs. Efforts are ongoing to produce tools and other resources to help you integrate the Core Competencies into your workforce development activities. Through a Core Competencies Workgroup, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages) is expanding its collection of Core Competencies-related tools that will be freely accessible online. Explore the existing tools and learn more about tools under development to help both individuals and organizations identify and meet workforce development needs, improve performance, and achieve both public health accreditation standards and Healthy People 2020 objectives.

Design and Implement Your Quality Improvement Plan

A quality improvement (QI) plan is a vital component of achieving Domain 9 standards for public health accreditation. Standard 9.2 states that an agency must provide documentation of a written QI plan. Learn more about how PHF can help you design and implement your QI plan and other assistance and support for accreditation preparation.

Increase Your Quality Improvement I.Q.

The emphasis on quality improvement (QI) continues to intensify for public health departments. To support your efforts to successfully implement QI, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) has created a new tool to serve as your guide. Download the Key Ingredients Tool for Public Health QI, which details factors contributing to successful QI endeavors, based on peer-reviewed literature and PHF's experience in building capacity in health departments.

Preorder the Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia: Coming Soon

Many public health organizations are being encouraged to use quality improvement (QI) tools to fulfill their missions, apply for accreditation, improve the health of their communities, and become more efficient and effective. To support this effort, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) has developed a comprehensive encyclopedia of 75 quality improvement tools.

In this authoritative handbook, the purpose of each tool is defined and guidance is provided on when to use it, how to use it, and what the next steps should be following its use. Each basic and advanced tool also includes a public health example to help increase your practical knowledge of quality improvement.

Preorder the Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia today at a discounted price before this resource is published in late summer.

View the TRAIN Webinar Series and Learn About the Tools and Resources Which Can Benefit Your Accreditation Efforts

To assist health departments in reviewing tools and resources available to support their accreditation efforts, TRAIN hosted a three-part webinar series on accreditation, which centered largely on Public Health Accreditation Board Domain 8 standards.

In line with Domain 8 standards, the webinars focused on the need for health departments to maintain a trained and competent workforce:

Standard 8.1: Encourage the development of a sufficient number of qualified public health workers
Standard 8.2: Assess staff competencies and address gaps by enabling organizational and individual training and development

Opportunities to utilize TRAIN to meet these standards were discussed and demonstrated for over 500 total participants.

If you missed the webinar events or need to refresh your knowledge of the tools and resources available to support accreditation Domain 8 standards, download and view the TRAIN Public Health Accreditation Webinar Series archives today.

Learn Evidence-Based Immunization Strategies From Experts During New Public Health Works Training Series

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is preparing to launch a new national training series, "Public Health Works" that will benefit State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) health department staff, health care personnel, community health professionals, and others.

The purpose of this series is to demonstrate how health departments and other organizations are using evidence-based strategies and quality improvement methods to improve their performance and the health of the communities they serve. Evidence-based findings and recommendations discussed during the series are also outlined in The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

The inaugural program, Immunization Strategies: Using the Evidence and What Works to Improve Practice, will highlight evidence-based immunization strategies that have been successfully implemented by the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health and their community partners. Registration information will be available in the upcoming weeks.

Want to be a part of the program? You can email your own immunization success story or a question for the immunization experts.

Vote in the PHF E-News Reader Poll: What is your organization's current approach to quality improvement in public health?

Vote by clicking on the image below to help us provide the most timely and helpful information for your public health needs.

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Our mission: We improve the public's health by strengthening the quality and performance of public health practice.

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In This Issue

- Use New Core Competencies Tools to Support Organizational Performance

- Design and Implement Your Quality Improvement Plan

- Increase Your Quality Improvement I.Q.

- Preorder the Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia: Coming Soon

- View the TRAIN Webinar Series and Learn About the Tools and Resources Which Can Benefit Your Accreditation Efforts

- Learn Evidence-Based Immunization Strategies From Experts During New Public Health Works Training Series

- Vote in the PHF E-News Reader Poll: What is your organization's current approach to quality improvement?

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