Situation
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) supports Indiana’s economic prosperity and quality of life by promoting, protecting, and providing for the health of Hoosiers in their communities.
GP Strategies’ knowledge of administrative procedures and planning resulted in raising the standard of health readiness and emergency preparedness.
Challenge
The challenge presented to GP Strategie is to provide technical assistance and coordination services to 93 local health departments (LHDs) to ensure consistent, statewide program performance that meets and exceeds federal public health preparedness requirements such that every citizen in the State of Indiana may expect and receive the same level of response.
Solution
GP Strategies was chosen to collaborate with ISDH to improve LHD emergency readiness. Our efforts included mapping, standardizing, streamlining, and automating processes to reduce duplicate effort and unclear roles; create and implement an overall learning vision and strategy for statewide LHDs; and create a staffing model to improve channels of communication and eliminate functional overlap. GP Strategies made the commitment to ISDH to use staff augmentation to implement a new model for public health preparedness activities. Meeting a stipulation of the contract for using local citizens and companies, GP Strategies successfully coordinates complex day-to-day operations with two subcontracted companies and nine personnel representing those compa – nies.
GP Strategies successfully used a phased-in staffing approach to recruit, screen, and hire 31 personnel in addition to subcontracted personnel to stand up 10 district offices in just three months, while saving the client more than $500,000. GP Strategies’ strong foundation in change, project, and relationship management successfully supported the overall transition as planned. GP Strategies and contractor personnel provided a pool of experts to assist LHD personnel with the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic event in 2009–2010. Personnel supported mass population vaccination clinics, including regional and international airports, government centers, and local health departments.
Results
GP Strategies knowledge of administrative procedures and planning resulted in raising the standard of health readiness and emergency preparedness readiness of 95% of the 93 LHDs across the state. Prior program initiatives by the State had yielded inconsistent results and, therefore, varying levels of readiness at the local level. Prior to the start of the contract, only six LHDs had a Local Technical Assistance Review (LTAR) score of 70 or above, including only one LHD that had an LTAR score of 90 or above (a score of 70 is required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be judged as Adequately Prepared). Through dedication and hard work, 81 LHDs had an LTAR score of 70 or above, including 45 LHDs that had an LTAR score of 90 or above.
GP Strategies continues to work closely with ISDH and LHDs to improve the readiness posture of the State’s health care system as it prepares the citizens of Indiana for the uncertainties of tomorrow.
