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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 8142 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8142_ TER To the Mayor and Members of the City Council July 7, 1998 41 1873 Subject: Fort Worth Public Health Department Needs Assessment On April 15, 1998, representatives from the Carter Foundation, Harris Methodist Hospital, Tarrant County Public Health Department, Osteopathic Medical Center, City of Fort Worth Public Health Department, DFW Hospital Council, Hugley Memorial Hospital, United Way, and All Saints Hospital System met to discuss the implementation of a scientific needs assessment instrument to guide community resource commitments. It was recognized that a needs assessment would be useful for all health entities in the strategic planning of indigent care and unmet community health needs. It was decided that at our next meeting on May 15, 1998, the group should come prepared to select a survey instrument, decide who would perform the assessment, determine the costs associated with the survey and who would contribute to the financing of this undertaking. At the May 15'' meeting, the group was joined by representatives from John Peter Smith Health Network and Arlington Memorial Hospital. United Way presented their proposal for a county- wide needs assessment with a completion date of December 1999., Tarrant County presented their proposal for a behavioral risk assessment with a start-up date sometime this summer, p%, although they had yet to decide on the number of modules within their instrument and they requested input from the group. The Fort Worth Public Health Department prefaced their presentation with the comment they had invited all interested organizations to partner in the development of our assessment instrument. In doing so, it delayed the completion of the instrument, but they felt it important that they develop an instrument collaboratively which would include everyone's concerns. The final instrument contains seventy-three major questions, of which United Way contributed eight questions for consideration, the Tarrant County Mental Health Association submitted four questions, and Family Services submitted two. The Fort Worth Public Health Department informed the group that the assessment process began in Fort Worth on Saturday, May 9, 1998, that they anticipate completing the door-to-door city- wide survey of 3,000 residents within two months and the analysis one month thereafter. The completed assessment document should be available to the public by August 1, 1998. Dee Tate, Director of Healthy Communities at Hugley Hospital and representing DFW Hospital Council in the Tarrant County Community Assessment Hospital Subgroup Committee, stated the Council had unanimously endorsed the Forth Worth Public Health Department's needs assessment instrument. The Council had an opportunity to review several instruments and selected the Fort Worth Public Health Department's as superior in concept, the most concise, and the most capable of meeting the needs of all parties. Consensus was reached by the Subgroup Committee to use the Fort Worth Public Health Department's needs assessment instrument to identify community needs throughout Tarrant County. A telephone survey will be the methodology utilized for gathering the county data, and the Subgroup Committee expressed their desire to engage the expertise of Dr. Terry Rives, Chief Epidemiologist with the Fort W ,] ,,, Public Health Department, to assist them in adapting our instrument to a tel p5jfj....94........e.................... ,.suryey, ty INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8142 TE To the Mayor and Members of the City Council July 7, 1998 Page 2 of 2 rlXPa Subject: Fort Worth Public Health Department Needs Assessment 7873 The next meeting was scheduled for June 18, 1998, for the purpose of developing a structure to formalize a health coalition of the stakeholders who had been attending these meetings. By formalizing a health coalition, they could achieve the collaboration necessary to improve the health of our community. At the meeting of June 18`h, the hospital administrators met to finalize their decisions regarding a county-wide survey and to discuss a model for improving health in the community. First, the DFW Hospital Council recommended the use of the Fort Worth Health Department's survey instrument for the Tarrant County needs assessment, and the recommendation was accepted. Dr. Terry Rives, Chief Epidemiologist with the Fort Worth Public Health Department, was requested by the Hospital Council to serve as a consultant for conducting the Tarrant County assessment. Dr. Rives' work in this regard is independent of the city's work and will include only the areas outside the city. This is a major achievement in that it will produce data consistent for both the city and county through the use of the same survey instrument. F Second, it was decided that the hospitals and HMOs in the county will be asked to contribute $5,000 per entity to offset the cost of the county survey. They in turn will receive a copy of the report when completed. In the event of an over subscription, it was decided that any additional revenue may come back to the City of Fort Worth. Third, Dr. Gerry Gunnin, Senior Vice President of Texas Health Resources, gave a presentation on the virtues of a model from the Institute of Medicine's report entitled "Improving Health in the Community — A Role for Performance Monitoring" by Durch, Bailey, and Stoto. Articulating a population-based approach to community health very similar to the City of Fort Worth Public Health Department, Dr. Gunnin described a field model that mirrors the foundation from which we derived our strategy at the Public Health Department. Dr. Gunnin spoke on the need to develop a methodology for measuring performance, particularly the implementation of interventions to address identified needs and the necessity of determining how one can know if the intervention was effective in addressing the problem or need. It was noted that this is the model the Fort Worth Public Health Department has embraced and is using in its assessment. If you would like additional information please contact Libby Watson, Assistant City Manager or Bob Galvan, Director of Public Health. ob Tern ................ City Manager �A