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Barbara A. Brookmyer, MD, MPH is Health Officer for Frederick County, Maryland. She previously served as Deputy Health Officer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Somerset County and Dorchester County. While working for the Health Resources and Services Administration, she developed policies to increase...

Accountability Reexamined – The "New" Accountability

Posted in: Performance Management and Quality Improvement

March 11, 2015

Harry Lenderman, EdD is a Quality Improvement Expert for the Public Health Foundation. Use of the word “accountability” seems to have evolved from traditional views. Traditionally, we find ways to “hold people accountable.” This article presents an alternative view in the context of quality improvement...

Charting a New Way Forward: Washoe County’s Experience with a Fundamental Review of the Health District

Posted in: Infrastructure, Performance Management and Quality Improvement, and Strategic Planning

December 16, 2014

Kevin Dick is the Washoe County District Health Officer in Reno, Nevada. In April 2013, I was appointed interim Health Officer of the Washoe County Health District. The Health District, like many, was experiencing years of declining revenue and deficit spending. Our position was unsustainable and,...

Open Call for PHAB Site Visitors

Posted in: Infrastructure

October 9, 2014

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is actively seeking public health practitioners to serve as Site Visitors. PHAB Accreditation is based on a peer review process, and Site Visitors play a central and substantive role in the accreditation process. PHAB is the independent organization that...

Indiana Uses PHHS Block Grant to Build Capacity Statewide

Posted in: Infrastructure, and Performance Management and Quality Improvement

June 11, 2014

Kristin Adams, Director, Office of Public Health Policy and Performance Management, Indiana Sate Department of Health The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has had great success utilizing the Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant to support local level initiatives including...

The National Public Health Improvement Initiative at State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Levels

Posted in: Infrastructure

May 30, 2013

Dr. Judith A. Monroe, Director, Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The public health system faces sustained financial challenges—challenges compounded by an aging population,...

Bialek: Prevention and Public Health Fund Under Attack

Posted in: Infrastructure

April 30, 2012

Ron Bialek, MPP, President, Public Health Foundation The easy choice could have been the healthy choice for the House of Representatives. On April 27, the House demonstrated a lack of leadership and foresight. Making the unhealthy choice to abolish the Prevention and Public Health Fund established...

Kaye Bender: What is the relationship between accreditation and quality improvement in public health?

Posted in: Infrastructure, and Performance Management and Quality Improvement

December 28, 2010

Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN, President and CEO, Public Health Accreditation BoardPHAB is using the definition of quality improvement in public health that was developed by the Accreditation Coalition and published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (January/February, 2010). Specifi...

C. William Keck: Academic Health Departments

Posted in: Council on Linkages, and Workforce Development

December 7, 2010

There is a big distinction between people just working together with their own agenda and working together towards a common purpose…When a community of learners transforms into a learning community, the outcome is far greater than the sum of the individual parts. Lori Nishiura, “On Learning” Many...

Top 10 Problems Encountered By Quality Improvement Teams

Posted in: Performance Management and Quality Improvementby Jack Moran

December 7, 2010

Over the past few years, I have been involved in training and facilitating many quality improvement (QI) teams in public health and have noted the following major problems that they have encountered: 1. AIM Statement - This important goal statement was often too large; the scope of the initial...