Performance Management & Process Improvement Effort Improvement Notes

Maplewood Health Department –[May 23, 2012]

Participating: Robert Roe, Barbara Gist, Kate Immordino, Colleen O’Dea, Dawn Disette, Emily Carey

For this Performance Improvement Cycle, the process that we are looking at is:

  • How the Maplewood Health Department attracts new and returning clients to Adult Health Clinics

Identified Issues / Goals for Improvement with the Current Process: / Proposed Solutions / Improvements:
  • Would like to have more nurses / more nursing hours available to offer more clinics
  • Limited hours to provide nursing services via clinics each month. Want to maximize the benefit of these limited hours.
  • With only 6 hours a month, might have to be more focused. Might have to leave some populations out. Need to determine primary target audience(s).
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  1. Reduce the 2 hours per month clinic at the Senior Residence to 1 hour (likely still will see the same number of clients at this clinic), and reassign that additional hour of clinic nurse availability to use at the library (or other location). Possibly test out cutting the senior residence clinic to once every other month, using the extra nursing time to hold clinics at other locations (like at the library during the day to target unemployed people who have lost their jobs and insurance & are using library computers to apply for jobs)
  2. Explore scheduling clinics during events and possibly election night to maximize number of people who will participate while already at a location for another purpose.
  3. Identify the primary target audience(s) for these clinics. If only one or two subpopulations had access to the clinics, who should they be and why? Focus clinic advertising & location/scheduling to maximize access to these target groups.

  • They would like to reach more people by doing more effective advertising.
  • Low participation in clinics. Would like to increase number of target population who access clinic services (especially, would like to increase volume of new participants). Would like to improve the effectiveness of clinic advertising.
  • Target audiences that the department would like to reach more effectively -- local Haitian population, unemployed & uninsured residents, residents who are too busy to see a doctor
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  1. The health department wants to change their name from “clinic” to the “Adult Health Program”. Goal would be to change to health and wellness – helping people stay healthy and stress a healthy lifestyle. Intended result - The community may feel more comfortable when seeking medical attention and that will increase clinic participants.
  2. Possibly do more advertising in the library and ask the Hilton Neighborhood Association for any ideas on how to reach the Haitian population. Do a little community-based research about this neighborhood to try and develop better methods for reaching residents.
  3. Try advertising in the Hilton area and the branch library.
  4. Possibly put more signs up that are bigger and better in and outside the library when a clinic is occurring (or will be occurring soon).
  5. Post signs at the train station, Kings Supermarket, post office, bulletin boards on Springfield and Maplewood Avenues (ask for permission)? Maybe use a flyer with tear-offs.
  6. Ask clinic participants where they heard about the clinics, to determine which advertising generates the most participants. Adjust advertising approaches based on this feedback

Data currently Collected:

  • Number of clinic participants (and who is new vs. returning client)

Data the Health Department wants to have:

  • How client learned about the clinic (for adjusting advertising in future)

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