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A Collaboration to Define
Local Public Health Business Processes
Purpose
This project (September 2005-May 2006) collaboratively defined a
set of business processes of local health departments (LHDs) as
a first step in defining information system requirements that meet
a majority of individual LHD needs.
Project summary
Local health departments across the country struggle to develop information
systems that meet their daily operational needs, let alone provide interconnectivity
to state departments of health, meet emerging data and communications interoperability
standards established by other state and federal agencies, and interconnect
with the health care delivery sector. To achieve a long-term, shared strategy
of interoperable LHDs requires a formal process to collaborate on defining
information system requirements that meet a majority of individual agency
needs. Collaborative requirements development (business process analysis
and redesign, followed by requirements definition) is a cost-effective and
rational approach to enabling LHDs to tailor a pre-established set of requirements
that comply with all existing national standards to meet their needs.
This
project was a collaboration of work group participants representative of
LHDs across the country, the Public Health Informatics Institute (the Institute),
the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and
its Informatics Committee. Guided by the Institute’s structured collaborative
requirements development methodology, the work group participants project
defined a representative sample of the business processes for LHDs. The 10
Essential Public Health Services and the Operational Definition of a Functional
Local Health Department provided the starting point for the project.
The
project produced described nine business processes, using standard business
process analysis tools, such as context and task flow diagramming, and
other tools that they developed to assist them in identifying the
business processes and tasks of LHDs. They gained confidence in
their skills such that many of them were able to teach the skills
to their own LHD staffs, who then analyzed and redesigned business
processes in their LHD areas. A report describes the project and
its outcomes, and includes context diagrams for the nine business
processes and a glossary of terms related to the collaborative
requirements development methodology.
This project demonstrated
that common understanding of the business processes of LHDs can
be achieved through a collaborative approach. Public health agencies
grasped the idea that business process analysis acts as a stimulus
for quality improvement and leads to transformation of public health
performance. They understand that, for information systems to support
the objectives of public health agencies, the activities must be
defined at the business process level and understood by all who
participate in the processes. The growing recognition and understanding
of business processes analysis provides the springboard for quality
improvement and consistent performance management for effective
health information systems.
Client and funding source
This project is supported by a grant to the Public Health Informatics Institute
from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Related documents and
links
Taking Care of Business: A
collaboration to define local health department business processes
Taking Care of Business! Sneak Preview
Operational
Definition of an LPHA
Contact: Anita Renahan-White, Project Manager, Public Health Informatics Institute.
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