Improving Health in the Community

Improving Health in the Community
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 1997-05-21
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309055342

How do communities protect and improve the health of their populations? Health care is part of the answer but so are environmental protections, social and educational services, adequate nutrition, and a host of other activities. With concern over funding constraints, making sure such activities are efficient and effective is becoming a high priority. Improving Health in the Community explains how population-based performance monitoring programs can help communities point their efforts in the right direction. Within a broad definition of community health, the committee addresses factors surrounding the implementation of performance monitoring and explores the "why" and "how to" of establishing mechanisms to monitor the performance of those who can influence community health. The book offers a policy framework, applies a multidimensional model of the determinants of health, and provides sets of prototype performance indicators for specific health issues. Improving Health in the Community presents an attainable vision of a process that can achieve community-wide health benefits.

Health Program Planning and Evaluation: A Practical, Systematic Approach for Community Health

Health Program Planning and Evaluation: A Practical, Systematic Approach for Community Health
Author: L. Michele Issel
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
Total Pages: 631
Release: 2009-09-14
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1449654576

The Second Edition of Health Program Planning and Evaluation will help you to systematically develop, thoughtfully implement, and rigorously evaluate health programs across a variety of health disciplines. This thorough revision includes updated examples and references throughout, reflecting the major changes within the field. This outstanding resource prepares students and professionals to become savvy consumers of evaluation reports and prudent users of evaluation consultants. It presents practical tools and concepts in language suitable for both the practicing and novice health program planner and evaluator.

Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States

Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2019-07-19
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309492688

Physical activity has far-reaching benefits for physical, mental, emotional, and social health and well-being for all segments of the population. Despite these documented health benefits and previous efforts to promote physical activity in the U.S. population, most Americans do not meet current public health guidelines for physical activity. Surveillance in public health is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of outcome-specific data, which can then be used for planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice. Surveillance of physical activity is a core public health function that is necessary for monitoring population engagement in physical activity, including participation in physical activity initiatives. Surveillance activities are guided by standard protocols and are used to establish baseline data and to track implementation and evaluation of interventions, programs, and policies that aim to increase physical activity. However, physical activity is challenging to assess because it is a complex and multidimensional behavior that varies by type, intensity, setting, motives, and environmental and social influences. The lack of surveillance systems to assess both physical activity behaviors (including walking) and physical activity environments (such as the walkability of communities) is a critical gap. Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States develops strategies that support the implementation of recommended actions to improve national physical activity surveillance. This report also examines and builds upon existing recommended actions.

Improving Evaluations

Improving Evaluations
Author: Lois-ellin Datta
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1979-07
Genre: Reference
ISBN:

Abstract: The value of evaluations to the public interest depends on their design and utilization. Evaluators from diverse backgrounds present their views on how to improve evaluation research. Case studies and theoretical arguments address 4 areas of concern: obstacles to evaluation; improving evaluation designs; improving measurement; and the role of evaluation. Political forces are seen as major factors limiting the effectiveness of evaluations of federal and state policies and programs. The questions of causal inference and internal validity in evaluation design are examined. Methods for improving measurement are illustrated by studies of mental health policies, social and community programs, job performance, and health technology. The role of evaluation is debated from a methodological and a theoretical perspective. Evaluation's impact on change, and emerging issues for evaluators and evaluation users are discussed. (nm).

Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care

Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2001-02-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309132746

Among the issues confronting America is long-term care for frail, older persons and others with chronic conditions and functional limitations that limit their ability to care for themselves. Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care takes a comprehensive look at the quality of care and quality of life in long-term care, including nursing homes, home health agencies, residential care facilities, family members and a variety of others. This book describes the current state of long-term care, identifying problem areas and offering recommendations for federal and state policymakers. Who uses long-term care? How have the characteristics of this population changed over time? What paths do people follow in long term care? The committee provides the latest information on these and other key questions. This book explores strengths and limitations of available data and research literature especially for settings other than nursing homes, on methods to measure, oversee, and improve the quality of long-term care. The committee makes recommendations on setting and enforcing standards of care, strengthening the caregiving workforce, reimbursement issues, and expanding the knowledge base to guide organizational and individual caregivers in improving the quality of care.

Handbook of Global Health

Handbook of Global Health
Author: Ilona Kickbusch
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 2881
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9783030450083

Global health is a rapidly emerging discipline with a transformative potential for public policy and international development. Emphasizing transnational health issues, global health aims to improve health and achieve health equity for all people worldwide. Its multidisciplinary scope includes contributions from many disciplines within and beyond the health sciences, including clinical medicine, public health, social and behavioral sciences, environmental sciences, economics, public policy, law and ethics. This large reference offers up-to-date information and expertise across all aspects of global health and helps readers to achieve a truly multidisciplinary understanding of the topics, trends as well as the clinical, socioeconomic and environmental drivers impacting global health. As a fully comprehensive, state-of-the-art and continuously updated, living reference, the Handbook of Global Health is an important, dynamic resource to provide context for global health clinical care, organizational decision-making, and overall public policy on many levels. Health workers, physicians, economists, environmental and social scientists, trainees and medical students as well as professionals and practitioners will find this handbook of great value.

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Development Organisations

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Development Organisations
Author: John De Coninck
Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2008-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Effective planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) is essential for organisational survival and for sustainable development, but remains a challenge for many development organisations, in spite of countless workshops, manuals and intervention of experts. This book presents ‘real-life’ experiences of 20 PME trainers and facilitators from Africa, Asia and Europe and offers suggestions for effective PME support processes, with a focus on civil society organisations. The authors seek to embrace a ‘total organisation’ approach to PME, one that looks at an organisation in its entirety, including its financial dimension, its environment, its collaborators and competitors, in a context informed by local and national cultures.

Implementation Monitoring and Process Evaluation

Implementation Monitoring and Process Evaluation
Author: Ruth P. Saunders
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2015-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1506305032

Implementation Monitoring and Process Evaluation by Ruth P. Saunders is a practical guide that helps readers understand and use the steps that program planners and evaluators take in implementing and monitoring a new program, policy, or practice in an organizational setting. The book covers the entire process, from planning, to carrying out the plan, and summarizing, reporting, and using the results. A wide range of real-world examples in the book are drawn from health, education, non-profit organizations, and public administration, and an extended case study, Your Turn boxes, and worksheet templates help readers apply concepts to their own projects. Ideal for practitioners, researchers, and students, this book can be used as a primary text for a process evaluation or an implementation monitoring course or as a supplemental text in a broader program evaluation course.