Quality Improvement Program
Mission. The mission of Mahoning County Public Health is to promote and protect the health of individuals and communities. We do this by educating, mobilizing, and collaborating with the public to prevent disease, reduce health disparities, and enhance the quality of life in Mahoning County.
Vision. We aspire to be the leader in population health improvement. Through the use of innovative, proactive, and collaborative approaches we will ensure conditions in which all people can be healthy.
Mahoning County Public Health is committed to the ongoing improvement of the quality of services its consumers receive, as evidenced by the outcomes of those services. The organization continuously strives to assure that the ten essential public health services are provided in the community:
- Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
- Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
- Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
- Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems.
- Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
- Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
- Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
- Assure competent public and personal health care workforce.
- Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
- Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.
The following Quality Improvement Plan serves as the foundation of the commitment of this agency to continuously improve the quality of the services it provides.
Quality. Quality services are services that are provided in a safe, effective, customer-centered, timely, problem solving and equitable fashion.
Quality Improvement Principles. Quality improvement (QI) is a systematic approach to assessing services and improving them on a priority and ongoing basis. Mahoning County Public Health approach to quality improvement is based on the following principles:
- Customer Focus. High quality organizations focus on their internal and external customers and on meeting or exceeding needs and expectations.
- Employee Empowerment. Effective programs involve people at all levels of the organization in improving quality.
- Leadership Involvement. Strong leadership, direction and support of quality improvement activities by the Board of Health and Health Commissioner are key to performance improvement. This involvement of organizational leadership assures that quality improvement initiatives are consistent with our mission and strategic plan.
- Data Informed Practice. Successful quality improvement processes create feedback loops, using data to inform practice and measure results. Fact-based decisions are likely to be correct decisions.
- Statistical Tools. For continuous improvement, tools and methods are needed that foster knowledge and understanding. Continuous quality improvement organizations use a defined set of analytic tools such as run charts, cause and effect diagrams, flowcharts, Pareto charts, histograms, and control charts to turn data into information.
- Prevention Over Correction. Continuous Quality Improvement entities seek to design good processes to achieve excellent outcomes rather than fix processes after the fact.
- Continuous Improvement. Processes must be continually reviewed and improved. Small incremental changes do make an impact, and providers can almost always find an opportunity to make things better.
Mahoning County Public Health Quality Improvement Plan 2019