Regional Senior Community Assessment

To understand more fully one of the growing segments of our population, the Western Partnership contracted with the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) to conduct a regional needs assessment of older adults in the region.  The purpose of this assessment was to compile secondary data, conduct key-informant interviews and pilot-test a senior survey to further inform a wide variety of regional stakeholders and partners about needs, resources, and concerns among elderly Western North Carolinians.  The Western Partnership will allocate future funding to write grants and will collaborate to develop evidence-based and innovative public health strategies for serving the needs of older adults, and will involve not only local agencies, but also community groups and partners.

 

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Clinic Operations

Many local health departments are faced with the challenge of providing services to a growing population with fewer resources, creating an increasingly important focus on operational efficiency. Henderson County and the Western Partnership worked with an outcomes measurement and benchmarking company to understand more about the quality and efficiency of family planning services. The core outcomes measured included patient and staff satisfaction, clinical quality, and cost of services. These measures were linked to clinic processes and organizational performance.  Cost savings resulted in resources being allocated to prevention efforts and have improved quality in the health department.

Incubator participants were invited to attend a regional presentation of data and best practices following completion of Henderson County's data collection and analysis. A regional clinic efficiency group of interested health departments has continued to meet to work through the consideration and implementation of changes in clinic operations. Additional project success will be reflected if counties adopt practices that improve the efficiency of their family planning clinic following the demonstration and presentation of the Henderson County recommendations.

 

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Public Health Marketing

The fact that very few of our local stakeholders and community members understand what public health is, serves as one of the primary barriers in securing resources for supporting local public health in our region. Though some efforts have taken place at the state and national level to define "public health," some of our local partners have not received an adequately targeted and effective message.  The Western Partnership supplemented marketing efforts of the NCIPH to develop materials specific to overcoming county needs and challenges in communicating the answer to: "What is public health?"  Marketing efforts continue.

 

 

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