Project Title: Kansas Health Foundation Public Health Practice Program (PHPP) Project Background:
Historically, the Kansas Health Foundation (Foundation) has supported initiatives to strengthen public health systems and to address public health workforce development. Recently, the Foundation
established a goal that by December 2015 at least 20 percent of the Kansas population would reside in a community in which the local health department has been accredited.
Examples of past funding to support workforce development include:
• Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute and Core Public Health, as well as public health certificate courses, have been funded. Additionally, public health continuing education scholarships were provided to local health departments to support conference fees, memberships and continuing education courses.
• In continued support of the KU Masters of Public Health (MPH) program, the Foundation provided a grant to the Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City and the KU School of Medicine-‐Wichita to develop and implement a minimum of three areas of concentration.
• In 2008, a grant to Kansas State University funded the One Health Kansas Program, as well as supporting the expansion of the MPH program.
Examples of past funding to support various health system initiatives include:
• Epidemiology positions at KDHE, in which grants were provided to support a new position, or in some cases, where matching funds were required by federal grants to fund epidemiologist positions
• The development and recent updates of PHClinic, a public health-‐oriented clinic management software used by approximately 60 local health departments in the state.
• A grant to be used by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to double the number of respondents for the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). The grant allows for the collection of data on a more localized level, with county-‐specific data available for up to 60 of the most highly-‐populated counties in the state. Data will also be available by region for rural areas.
Project Purpose:
The Foundation seeks to engage the Public Health Systems Group (PHSG) in a process to annually develop and approve a rolling two-‐year, systems-‐level strategic plan that will provide recommendations and priorities to inform how PHPP funds may best be used to strengthen the capacity and infrastructure of the Kansas public health system. The long-‐term goal is increasing health departments’ capacity to achieve accreditation through a voluntary national accreditation program for state and local public health departments developed by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).
Project Objectives:
• Through this process, the Public Health Systems Group (PHSG) organizational members and partners will help articulate and determine Foundation funding strategies. Recommendations should be specific, should enhance the possibility of local health departments and KDHE becoming accredited and should strengthen the public health system.
• Funding strategies will be organized into an annual strategic plan. The PHPP will act on recommendations made by the PHSG. Details of the funding process depend on
recommendations made by the group. The process is flexible and responsive to the group. There may be recommendations to work with specific organizations or the recommendations may be to open initiatives up to a competitive process.
Project Components and Definitions:
To provide an important backdrop for all future discussions, the following general definitions of workforce development and systems development should be used.
• Workforce Development pertains to people, such as public health practitioners. • Systems development pertains to organizations.
In both cases, these terms should be considered based on the idea of improving and increasing capacity and performance.
Project Funding and Scope
From a funding standpoint, the Foundation has dedicated $1.25 million to support this project, which will cover all expenses associated with the initiative, such as facilitators, meeting costs and stipends for vetting courses, development of work plans, etc. Of that amount, a minimum of $850,000 will fund the overarching activities recommended in the PHPP strategic plans that support public health workforce development and public health systems development.
Within both of these components there are many possible projects eligible for Foundation funding. Examples of projects that could be funded include:
• Workforce development:
o Continuing education sessions at public health conferences; o Classroom courses at colleges and universities in Kansas; o Virtual/Internet courses, webinars and online workshops;
o Training plan development for public health practitioners and their managers; o Technical assistance around specific aspects of public health.
• Systems development:
o Addressing the health departments’ information and other data system needs; o Strategic planning and other organizational development efforts related to
accreditation;
o Fostering strong relationships with decision makers to build an effective public health system.
Examples of projects not eligible for Foundation funding through this initiative include:
• Capitol funds to support building improvements and materials (computer software, etc.) • Funds to support new academic or local health department staff or positions
Roles and Responsibilities:
Throughout the execution of this initiative, the following groups will have specific roles and responsibilities:
• Public Health Systems Group (PHSG): Through this initiative, the PHSG would serve as an Project advisory group to the Foundation. In collaboration with the Foundation staff and support team, the (PHSG) would develop annual strategic plans to inform how PHPP funds may best be used to strengthen the capacity and infrastructure of the Kansas public health system and better position the state and local health departments to achieve accreditation.
• Sub-‐Committee of the PHSG: PHSG members and/or their designees will serve on the sub-‐ committee charged with developing the strategic plan. The “plan” will then be voted on by the PHSG and recommendations to the Foundation will be prioritized.
• Work Groups: Public health experts will likely be needed to “vet” existing continuing education courses and training programs to determine whether each adequately addresses needed and beneficial competencies and skills. Another work group may be needed to identify appropriate training plans for the various practitioner positions, as well as agency-‐wide training plans. The individuals asked to serve on these two work groups may have little connection to the PHSG, but will have expertise in those areas. Due to the nature of these tasks and the time commitment, funds from the PHPP may be used to provide stipends for those individuals.
Project Timelines and Milestones:
• In-‐Person Meetings: There will be three face-‐to-‐face meetings to support development of the 2014 strategic plan and to support initial planning for the PHPP strategic planning project.
o At the September 2013 meeting, the Foundation proposed a process to engage both the PHSG and potential stakeholders that is iterative, efficient and allows for significant progress to take place prior to February 2014. Also, participants shared insights to help guide what is needed in terms of background information to make the deliberations at the next in-‐person meeting most fruitful and discussed what participants will need to be fully informed to brainstorm recommendations.
o The November/December 2013 meeting will be a meeting of the PHPP Sub-‐Committee. At this time, the process will begin for developing the first annual strategic plan (rolling, two-‐year plan), which will recommend and prioritize specific funding strategies.
• Strategic Plans: As previously stated, each strategic plan will be a two-‐year, rolling plan. The 2014 strategic plan will be completed and approved by March 2014 and will describe the work to be completed during 2014 and proposed for 2015. Subsequent strategic plans will be completed by December of the previous year and will describe recommendations for that calendar year.
• Development of the Sub-‐Committee: The Sub-‐Committee will be convened and chaired by KHF staff, and all PHSG organizational members will have an opportunity to participate or appoint a designee for the Sub-‐Committee.
o In preparation for the November meeting, Foundation staff will convene discussions with key informant groups and identify who should participate in panels at the meeting to provide perspectives on priorities/needs in the state.
o Project support staff will assess, research and provide background information to help the Sub-‐Committee think productively about what best serves public health in Kansas regarding the two program components and that furthers public health capacity with an eye toward increasing the number of accredited health departments.
• Delphi Process: Following the November meeting, the list of ideas/recommendations produced from that meeting and the accompanying discussions with a variety of key informant groups and will be used for an online Delphi process. The facilitators have successfully applied this in the past to gain convergence of opinion among experts.
o This process is designed to be convenient, anonymous and efficient. Those surveyed will first rate each recommendation for its ability to make a difference in workforce
development or systems development for state and local public health departments in the near term and its level of priority for the Foundation to fund.
o In a subsequent round, those surveyed will rank the recommendations from 1 to 10, with 1 being the top priority.
o The Delphi process will take place between December and February, with two weeks to complete each phase of the process.
o The cumulative analyses from the Delphi process will be used as the basis for gaining approval from the PHSG in the final group meeting for the strategic funding plan which will include specific recommendations for funding in 2014 and 2015.
• PHSG Meeting: To be held in March 2014. Members will receive the strategic plan developed by the Sub-‐Committee prior to the meeting in order to review and be able to request additional information needed prior to voting on this initial strategic plan.
Project Support:
The project team from the Foundation consists of Jeff Willett (Vice President for Programs), Carolyn Williams (Senior Program Officer) and Bruce Miyahara (Program Manager for Public Health).
To support this initiative, the Foundation has hired a team of project facilitators and a project manager. The facilitation team, consisting of Bill Benson and Amy Slonim, is familiar with Kansas public health and has recently assisted KDHE with the Healthy Kansans 2020 process. Benson and Slonim will guide the PHSG through a process that is interactive and relies upon participant input in an efficient and productive manner to produce a strategic plan and funding priorities. Ty Kane, the program’s project
manager, will support project communication, convening of the PHSG and ensure timely strategic plan development. Kane will also ensure implementation of the priorities adheres to each year’s strategic plan, while simultaneously supporting development of the following year’s strategic plan.
Project Communication Mechanisms:
All PHSG partner organizations and members will receive access to a PHPP Drop Box (Web-‐based sharing site) folder that will be updated with meeting agendas, minutes and background information about strategies to address workforce development and systems improvement.
Primarily, e-‐mail communication will be utilized throughout the course of this project. Additionally, Delphi Forums, a Web-‐based communication and networking tool, will be used. The online forum will allow project participants and facilitators to communicate, research and make decisions throughout the project.
Project Decision Making:
The PHSG is the ultimate group voting on the recommendations. The Sub-‐Committee will generate recommendations that will be taken to the PHSG. To ensure the final recommendations will best serve local public health departments, the following slide reflects the proposed voting process. Each
organization will have one vote, except KALHD, which will have four votes (executive director, and one for small, medium, and large health departments).
