Adapting an Existing Performance Management System

Mon, 06/15/2015 - 13:49 -- LBerlow

I am a new accreditation coordinator who is also new to my agency, and I just joined the PHQIX community (Hi, everyone!). My question is this: At my agency, we are required to use a City-run performance management dashboard to report monthly progress on various items to our Mayor and City Council. We have one staff person who does the reporting every month; she gets data from the various Divisions and programs and I am told this can be a very arduous process. Since learning more about how PM and QI work together, I have been thinking a lot about our internal PM infrastructure and wonder if it would be beneficial to create something "just for us", so to speak, to help streamline the process of adding/changing performance measures and obtaining data; and that would engage more staff and align with our QI efforts and strategic plan. However, I don’t want to create something totally new if our existing system could be adapted or expanded somehow. Does anyone else have experience with this, or suggestions on how to achieve a similar goal? I'd appreciate your feedback!

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Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi, I recently had a similar project proposed, and there are multiple ways to approach this. I think one way could be to do a QI project to improve the PM process. Perhaps the City is not aware that you are dissatisfied with the system. It doesn't hurt to have a discussion, and do a process map and a root cause analysis to see if improvements are even possible/realistic. This would involve inviting all of the internal/external stakeholders (City leadership, PM system IT, your staff person reporting, one of your program coordinators, etc). If there is nothing that the City or system can help you with, perhaps then you can consider a more internal approach, or maybe the second phase of your project could include an internal approach. This could be as simple as looking at improving the process of how the one staff person gathers data and reports it.  

In my experience, sometimes if we ask nicely, we can affect change in places we weren't aware of. I hope that helps :)

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