Assessing Continuous Quality Improvement in Public Health: Adapting Lessons from Healthcare

Price, Alex; Schwartz, Robert; Cohen, Joanna; Manson, Heather; Scott, Fran

"I think setting targets and celebrating the reaching of the targets is the other part. Part of our plan will be not just setting goals but also celebrating the achievement of the goals … What we look at when we set out goals for staff and within the organization, knowing that we are not going to achieve every goal every time but celebrate our achievements and keep us moving forward." -Site-A informant Moreover, there was some uncertainty about the level of support for facilitating factors and the presence of barriers such as hierarchical cultural norms. On the issue of whether the system was primarily intended to promote learning (a key characteristic of CQI), those surveyed in the area of chronic disease prevention were significantly more uncertain than respondents from other areas (p < 0.02). Likewise, 84.3% of the survey sample agreed or strongly agreed that the initiative was primarily concerned with maintaining compliance with public health practice and performance expectations -resembling a quality assurance orientation. In addition, respondents in the area of emergency preparedness were more likely to disagree (p < 0.02) with the statement that data generated from the provincial initiative would be used to improve performance.