Capability Cliff Note Series:

PHEP Capability OverviewWhat They Are and How To Measure

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Purpose of Capabilities

• The purpose of the capabilities is to identify the critical sets of skills each state needs in order to provide emergency preparedness, response, and recovery to their citizens.

Capability Definition

• Capability: Overall set of skills that are related to one area of expertise.

Example—Community Preparedness covers the ability of a state’s different organizations to reach out and incorporate its communities into its plans and operations, before a disaster.

Function Definition

• Function: An individual type of skill that contributes, with other related skills, to an overall competence in an area of expertise.

Example—Community engagement is the ability to reach out to and involve key organizations or members in multiple communities in order to build relationships for communication and assistance.

Task Definition

• Task: Individual activities that lead to the fulfillment of certain needs, steps to achieve a function.

Example—Create a communication network within your jurisdiction to disseminate public health information to different communities, before, during, and after a disaster.

Capability Breakdown

• CapabilityFunction

Task

Capability Breakdown

• Capability is a pie:

• Function is a slice:

• Task is a bite:

Measurement of Capabilities

• In order to identify if states are developing these capabilities, and to what extent, there needs to be a tangible way to measure progress.

Types of Measurement

• Process—Are people completing tasks recommended to achieve these capabilities?

• Outcome—Is the achievement of these tasks leading to the state being more prepared?

Performance Measures

• Performance measures are formulas that provide quantitative (number-based) and qualitative (non-numeric) information on whether the capabilities are being developed across inter-related activities, with multiple populations and partners

• There are a lot of moving parts to the process of achieving capabilities.

Performance Measures: Breakdown

• Performance measures--Overall documentation of development of the capability

Data elements—The individual task-oriented measurements to give an idea of whether the activities are taking place, and if they are having an effect .

How Are Performance Measures Calculated?

• Performance measures are determined by calculating data elements, which are collected by questions that provide information on activities done to gain those capabilities, and the results of those activities.

Example of MeasureCan public health share basic epidemiological and/or clinical data with relevant

healthcare organizations? Yes or No?

However, in order to answer ‘yes’ there are criteria or pieces to complete. A ‘yes’ means that an organization has:

• Identified all relevant healthcare organizations (HCOs) with which it plans to share data• Identified a position or specific point of contact for all relevant HCOs• Identified a minimum set of data elements that would need to be shared with relevant HCOs• Identified a platform or process to share data with relevant HCOs

Explanation: Though this is a binary answer, yes or no, a number of more detailed questions have to be asked first, to provide more data. The detailed questions are called the data elements.

Examples of Data ElementsWhich types of HCOs have been identified for each element?• Hospitals• Long-term care facilities• Community health centers• Other

Has this capability (information sharing) been demonstrated in a real incident in this budget period?

• Have corrective action/improvement plan items related to information sharing been identified? Yes or No?

• Have corrective action/improvement plan items related to information sharing been implemented? Yes, No, or Some?

How Work Plan Terms Are DefinedThe capabilities and performance measures are linked to how CDPHE

organizes work plans. In order to coincide with the capabilities, work plans have been organized in terms of Goals, Objectives, and Activities:

• Goals are broad, sweeping over-all end-points, like capabilities “The big picture”.– Objectives are the broad strategies used to accomplish certain pieces

of the goal.• Activities are specific actions taken that will lead to the objectives

being completed. They use the principles of ‘SMART’: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.

How Reporting Terms Are DefinedAs with the work plans, reporting to the CDC with the performance measures is

structured according to the idea of capability, function, and task levels. But because reporting is part of evaluation, it uses evaluation vocabulary. Reporting is done in the following format: A goal, two (2) outcomes, and two (2) outputs per outcome:

• As in the work plans, Goals are broad, sweeping over-all end-points, like Capabilities “The big picture”.– Outcomes are the results of the objectives used to accomplish certain

pieces of the goal, like Functions.• Outputs are specific actions accomplished that led to the outcome

desired, like Tasks. Outcomes are reported using the principles of ‘SMART’: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.

• If goals are the forest, outcomes are the trees, and outputs are the parts of the tree, branches, trunk, roots, bugs living in the tree.

Levels of Reporting

• Goal: (Forest)

• Outcomes: (Different Trees)

Vacation Tree Creepy Halloween Tree

• Outputs: (Different Parts of Trees)

Such as Leaves , and sometimes…Things In The Trees

Example of Reporting ResultsGoal: To increase informational awareness (Information-Sharing Capability)

among healthcare organizations in Middle Earth

– Outcome 1: Mordor State Health Department identified key organizations from which data sharing will be needed in the event of a Spotted Hobbit Fever pandemic. This was completed by the end of the 2013-2014 grant year.

• Output 1: Mordor State Health Department collected and mapped all the hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community clinics in Mount Doom, and Dead Marsh Counties. Maps and key contacts at each facility were completed by December 31st, 2014

• Output 2: Mordor State Health Department held a meeting with the Mount Doom Healthcare Coalition for these counties to coordinate data-sharing platforms and accessibility. The meeting was held by May 31st, 2014.

Reporting Results Cont’dGoal: To increase informational awareness (information-sharing capability)

among healthcare organizations in Middle Earth

– Outcome 2: Mordor State Health Department worked with facilities within the Mount Doom and Dead Marsh Healthcare Coalitions to develop health information-sharing protocols for healthcare facilities. This was completed by the end of the 2013-2014 grant year.

• Output 1: Mordor State Health Department held a meeting with healthcare coalitions to review facilities’ information-sharing protocols, by February 15, 2014.

• Output 2: Mordor State Health Department, Mount Doom, and Dead Marsh Healthcare Coalitions created a shared document list of essential elements of information, and essential requirements for shared information-protocol, by June 30, 2014.

Evaluation TermsThe terms used for reporting are often taken from a logic model,

which is just a simple tool for plotting out what is put into a program, what is done in the program, and what people hope to get out of it.

• Input: Resources that go into a project or goal• Output: Actions that were performed toward the project/goal, and

who was served• Outcome: Results of the actions• Assumptions: Conditions that can be assumed to be true, such as

reasons program creators think outcomes will be improved by their intervention.

• External factors: Things that can affect the outcomes, over which there is no control.

Logic Model

• Logic models display all of the inputs, outputs, outcomes, and other factors that go into a program and show how it is expected to progress.

• Evaluation uses logic modeling to determine measurement.

• Logic modeling is a useful tool for plotting out program capabilities, functions, tasks, and expected results, and linking them to measures.

Logic Model Example

Future TrainingsFuture capability presentations will break down each capability into its

functions and tasks, and explain how these are measured.

In addition, templates for logic models are available upon request at the email below.

For questions, contact: Rachel Coles, program evaluator, 303-692-2764, rachel.coles@state.co.us