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!

From the Management Academy Director

Recently I read an interesting blog written by Dr. Louis Rowitz. Dr. Rowitz, has built a unique career in academia via public health practice issues and initiatives. He currently serves as the director of the University of Illinois Center for Public Health Practice. He has published two public health leadership books entitled Public Health Leadership: Putting Principles into Practice and Public Health for the 21st Century: The Prepared Leader.
The most recent blog focused on the Need to Learn.
Here is a short segment of the article:
Every time we read a book, take a course, attend a conference, work collaboratively with others, use our creativity skills, solve a problem, resolve a conflict, improve the quality of our organizations, or communicate with others, we increase the return on investment in our personal growth and on the organizations for which we work. Knowledge management is cost effective and increases cost efficiency.

The blog is thought provoking and he goes on to cover other subjects related to leadership. He offers a segment of Leadership Is An Art by Max DePree and lists the ideals of helping a leader to define reality. Here are just a few:

• No matter how good a job you do, you can still lose your job.
• Not all team members do the work.
• It is your good managers that make you like your job.
• Most leaders don’t change. The weaknesses remain. Play to the person’s strengths.
• Don’t expect politicians to value what you do. Their priorities are not your priorities.
• Resilience is the secret weapon of leadership.
• People don’t want change and they use budget considerations to justify their resistance.

For more on Rowitz, see
http://rowitzonleadership.wordpress.com/

Dr. Frieden on the implementation gap

The new director of CDC Tom Frieden spoke in Chapel Hill recently and said something I thought was interesting and provocative about managing in public health. (You can hear part of the talk on YouTube). Here's what he said:

We have an implementation gap. The gap between what we know and what we wish to know is huge. But the gap between what we know and what we do is even larger.

In other words, we need to pay more attention to execution. We know what's important, and for the most part we know what things would need to happen to make a difference in those important areas. So what would it take to change the "what we do" side of the equation? Effective plans that are doable.

--Steve Orton

From the Management Academy Director

NACCHO (the National Association of County and City Health Officials) offers a Model Practices Program that "recognizes initiatives that demonstrate exemplary and replicable qualities in response to identified public health needs."
This year, there were 23 local health departments that received Model Practices Awards. Their projects focused on a a variety of topics, including the following that may be of interest to you:

• Vaccination on Wheels - Take It To The Streets
• Accreditation Preparedness
• Ensuring a Competent Public Health Workforce
• A Communicable Disease Prevention and Response Tool for Schools

And, in the past, a couple of North Carolina teams have also had winning entries:

• Henderson County Health Department - Influenza Vaccination Program
• Cabarrus County Health Alliance - Transitioning from a Public Health Department to a Public Health Authority

Have you and your staff submitted any Model Practices? Have you visited the website and searched for Model Practices within the Database? Would you be interested in contributing to a Model Practices Database reserved just for your state and their public health initiatives?

Civic Entrepreneurship: Union Independent School

Wanted to share a "civic entrepreneurship" news story -- Jim Johnson is the founding co-director of the Management Academy for Public Health and has taught in the program every year since 1999.

http://gazette.unc.edu/archives/09aug26/file.4.html