Excel-based performance management system examples

Sat, 06/13/2015 - 11:21 -- gkroberts

Greetings!

Does anyone have an excel-based performance management system that they are currently using that they would be willing to share? We are a local health district consisting of 13 counties and 13 health departments, and do not have funding to purchase a PM system.

The archived PHQIX webinar "Raising the bar with a new performance management system," provided some excellent insight on PM and the benefits, but was discouraging to know that we would not be able to purchase a fancy system. I know an excel-based one will be more work to maintain, but I feel that this would be the only realistic place to start.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Submitted by Carlylb on


We started out with Excel then switched to Google Spreadsheets which allows several people to access the document at the same time.  Each program has their own spreadsheet to track their measures.  We done this by setting up separate tabs or pages for each program within the one file.  The program allows you to create protection locks on individual cells or the tabs and specify who has editing rights.  It also will provide a history of who/what has been changed.  If you would like an example of our Google file, email me at Bartowr@stlouis-mo.gov

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Rhonda Bartow

Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Rhonda,

What an excellent idea! I really like the versatility of Google Forms but have not used Google Spreadsheets. Would this require the programs to have their own google account to access the spreadsheet, and how did you address that?

Thank you for being so willing to share your example. I will email you shortly.

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by gkroberts on

I just wanted to add a follow-up to the previous post. I spoke with our IT department and was informed that our work emails are microsoft-based, and not google-based like Rhonda's; thus, instead of using google drive/spreadsheets, we would obtain the same benefits from using Office 365's OneDrive spreadsheets. It's the same thing, just the microsoft version. This way, our performance management system users will not have to create a separate account to access the system.

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by Jne310 on

I think excel is a great place to start actually!  I think everyone needs to start small and focus on what they actually want to measure, see if there is a pertinent baseline to start from, credible data source, and SMART goals and objectives that are feasible for all.  I think too many people focus on the fancy systems for PM and then once they have them, they are at a loss bc they didn't focus instead on what they actually wanted to achieve.  It takes a long time to get people to see where they want to be and you can't do that without starting from scratch with the baseline and data metrics.  You can begin to do that, all the while searching for the best more fancy system, but it makes no sense to have a fancy system sitting there with no metrics or even worse, crazy lofty goals that won't produce results for many years and thus, your staff won't buy into the whole PM concept.  I would suggest starting small with excel, while finding some easy, tangible things for people to understand instead of all health outcome data.  Then once people get the hang of routine measurement and progress reporting you can move onto better tools and techniques, along with more long-term meaningful metrics!  Sounds like you are on the right track and have support, so best of luck!!!

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C. Janie Cambron, RS, BS, MPH
Program Manager, EnviroHealthLink, Kentucky's Environmental PH Tracking Network
Kentucky Department for Public Health
Phone: 502-564-4537 ext. 4088; janie.cambron@ky.gov

Submitted by gkroberts on

Thanks, Janie! I completely agree with you about starting small and focusing on the metrics. When I first started this project, I was so overwhlemed and intimidated by the large, fancy PM systems out there. It was discouraging. However, now that my colleague (D. Lankford) and I have actually started an excel document with just 3 measures for each program (about 20), it makes so much more sense. Maybe during the next fiscal year, we can add more metrics. The first comment on this thread (R. Bartow)'s example was very helpful in helping us frame our excel doc. Keeping it simple to start with is the only way to get buy-in from the rest of the staff that will be using it. Another thing I have learned is that making this "user-friendly" is the key to succcess. By this I mean, making the graphs easy to comprehend, keeping the words limited, trying to keep as much information on one screen so users don't have to scroll, and making it colorful/eye-catching. I'm still working on the user-friendly part, and I will keep your advice in mind as I continue with this project. Thank you!

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

cgizzi's picture
Submitted by cgizzi on

Clackamas County Public Health in Oregon has produced some very nice Excel templates to monitor and report their performance measures.  I have an example from Philip Mason that he has given me permission to share with others, if you would like to see it. (Or I'm sure he'd be willing to share the most current version with you directly.)

Hope this information is helpful.

Cindan Gizzi, MPH

Public Health Centers for Excellence  www.phcfe.org

 

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Submitted by sarahacker on

To echo the sentiments above- one of the most valuable piece of Performance Management advice that I have ever recieved was that you can do PM really well with a pencil and piece of paper, and you can do it poorly with fancy software. Start small and find something that has utility and that people can and will use.

That being said, we have a PM system that is functional, but is still a work in progress. Our department is small, and we use an excel spreadsheet for our dashboard indicators, and each program has additional metrics that they keep track of and report on regularly.

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Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Sara, your advice really puts things into perspective. Thanks for sharing that! Would you be willing to share your excel doc?

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by afreed on

Cindan- I would love to see a copy of your PM system spreadsheet as well, or a snapshot example. We are currently using a spreadsheet with many tabs and I was looking for some other options.

Thanks!

Ali Reed

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Ali Tahler-Reed, BA, CQIA
City of Milwaukee Health Department
afreed@milwaukee.gov

Submitted by tkane on

Ali, Gurleen, Sara, Janie & Rhonda,

To help folks (and me) understand your performance management system in a bit more detail, would you be willing to share:

  1. What is your PM tool (e.g. Excel, Google, etc.)?
  2. How many measures are you tracking in your tool?
  3. How often do you update/report measures in the tool?
  4. What is the best thing about your current PM tool?
  5. What feature would you like ot add to your current PM tool?

Ty

 

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Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Ty, I am still currently drafting our PM system so I will answer those to the best of my ability.

1. Excel (Microsoft Office 365)

2. Since this is our very first time, we are tracking 3 measure per 20 programs, which equals 60 measures.

3. We plan to update this annually.

4. My favorite part about ours is that it is user friendly and colorful. We have placed a navigation toolbar at the top of each excel sheet to make it easier to navigate between sheets.

5. I would like to password protect the entire document and provide access to certain sheets based on the different login accounts. I know that this is possible to do on excel, I am just having trouble figuring out how to do it.

Those are great questions. I am looking forward to hearing what the others have to say. Thanks for asking!

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by bpalinski2 on

Hi All,

Stumbled across this thread and thought I'd share an excel-based PM system developed/used by Columbus and Toledo Ohio. There is an over-haul planned but this might suit some of your needs currently (even if only to help generate ideas).

The dashboard is in the zip file called "PM Dashboard." Additionally you should check out the "Marco Security Trust Guide" because these sheets do use macros (all are safe).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/seo5hp6erfds8yo/AABMzcryDjguBCF1G7BlMFJna?dl=0

Have a great day all!

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Brandon Palinski, MPH-VPH, SIT
Quality Assurance & Accreditation Coordinator
Toledo-Lucas County Health Department
419.213.4136
palinskb@co.lucas.oh.us
www.lucascountyhealth.com