Business Planning On The Road

Yes, we are piloting a program that provides business planning development to communities where they live. We're starting by targeting MAPP communities at the "Action Cycle" end of their process. (MAPP = Mobilizing Action through Planning and Partnership-- check it out at naccho.org/mapp)

Here's how the program works.

• We consult with you in advance to identify the best ideas to develop business plans around, and then form teams around those ideas.
• We come to your community for a one or two-day session; you convene as many members of your MAPP team as is necessary to get one or two or four business plans started.
• At the end of that session, your team or teams will have a good outline of a feasibility plan completed.
• We meet via webinar or conference call with each team as they develop a full feasibility plan.
• If the plan is in fact feasible, we coach them through the full business plan.

I should clarify what I mean by "team" in this context: I mean a cross-community team. For instance, you might have team members from the health department, the hospital, the other hospital, the United Way, the YMCA, the school system, the community health center, the county-- or all of the above.

We're in the middle stages with several teams in Florida right now, and some of the feasibility plans look really good. Two stand-out plans: adding dental services to an existing HIV clinic, and doing ER diversion with at least two and probably three different hospitals across a county.

The lesson for me is this: communities can develop business plans very quickly and efficiently if they already have a good, fresh assessment in hand, and a wide range of partners queued up and ready to go. That defines the MAPP communities we're working with: motivated partners, good data, identified priorities.

-- Stephen Orton

Success Story: Highland Health Center

Congratulations to our friends in Gaston County NC on their Highland Health Center Grand Opening and Building Dedication last Tuesday, July 27!

A Gaston County team developed the business plan through the Management Academy to plan out how to co-locate health department and health center services. You can read more about the Grand Opening here.

This is a classic example of a public health business plan:

• Starts from health needs
• Identifies a key target market (in this case a specific section of the city)
• Maps out a mutually beneficial alliance (in this case, the health department and the FQHC in the city)
• Shows how the money will flow

Hats off to the whole team, and thanks to Health Director Colleen Bridger for sending them!

--Steve Orton

Recovery Act funds for Public Health

It seems that some public health agencies have access to Recovery Act funds to do specific new things.

The challenge is to figure out how to spend that money in a way that makes a difference during the two years you have it, without losing those gains at the end of the time. One way to approach such an opportunity is to think in terms of start-up funding. Spend the money (time, effort) building something that can then go by itself.

Perhaps in two years you can build something that creates more community health and generates sufficient revenue on its own to support itself through user fees. Perhaps you can build something that generates sufficiently impressive results after two years that you can interest some other funder-- one that values the outcomes you are creating. Perhaps at the end of two years, you operationalize your exit plan: your agency steps back and the program is taken over by an external partner who cares about it and can run it sustainably, with the thanks and blessing of your busy staff!