Local Public Health System Assessment Released
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(Friday) July 30, 2010
Summary Graph (Courtesy Image)
Last week, the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria released a report on the Alexandria Health department’s performance in ten essential public health services. The report showed that the Health Department is performing well in most of the services and made recommendations for improvements.
In February 2010, the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria and the Alexandria Health Department convened a day-and-a-half meeting with more than 80 representatives from 43 organizations in Alexandria to formally evaluate how well Alexandria’s public health system performs the Ten Essential Public Health Services. These organizations included various city agencies, the courts system, local non-profit and community groups, health providers, businesses, commissions, and policy leaders.
Participants rated Alexandria’s public health system’s performance against the Ten Essential Public Health Services. These standards were designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are used to evaluate public health systems across the country, helping them to identify areas where they excel and areas for innovation and improvement.
All services in Alexandria scored in the top two performance categories with Optimal or Significant activity in all of the Essential Services.
Next steps for the Alexandria public health system include:
- Designing a comprehensive evaluation strategy to assess future achievements;
- Identifying priorities and commencing work on specific actions; and
- Continuing to reach out to Alexandria’s diverse population to participate in making the system stronger.